PKK kills three Turkish soldiers in Kurdistan Region: army

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Turkish army announced the killing of three of its soldiers on Thursday in an attack by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) guerrillas inside the Kurdistan Region.

A press release by the military’s general staff did not specify the area where it lost sergeants fighting Kurdish rebels.

Turkey has been staging a gradually expanding invasion into the Kurdistan Region’s mountainous areas of Barzan, Sidekan, and Avashin in the Erbil and Duhok provinces near the border.

As snap presidential and general elections on June 24 approachs, some Turkish pundits and lawmakers claim incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government may launch a full-scale incursion into Kurdistan targeting the Qandil mountains where PKK is headquartered.

Last week, ultranationalist independent MP Sinan Ogan tweeted that an operation before the elections was “coming.”

There was no statement by the PKK, labeled as terrorist by Ankara and its Western allies, regarding the Turks’ Thursday casualties.

However, on a website where the group publishes details of clashes, it said at least the previous two days saw the killing of seven Turkish soldiers and wounding of another in Barzan and Sidekan.

Casualties from both have seen a rise in the past month with the conflict raging on inside Turkey.

Three PKK fighters were killed on May 21, in the Dersim Province.

Ankara has also been conducting an air campaign on alleged PKK targets inside Turkey and abroad in the Kurdistan Region.

Turkish airstrikes since the 2015 breakdown of peace talks between the two sides have killed dozens of civilians in the Region.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany