VIDEO: Three Turkish soldiers injured in IED blast in the Kurdistan Region

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – A Turkish military convoy on Monday was struck by an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) near the town of Batifa in Duhok province in the Kurdistan Region.

Two vehicles were damaged by the explosion and three Turkish soldiers were injured, as well as one interpreter - identified as Ibrahim Orayi - traveling with the convoy, a Kurdish Colonel Commander told Kurdistan 24 correspondent Islam Zakhoy.

The blast took place in the village of Ziriza, near Batifa. Two of the soldiers remain in critical condition. 

The IED is believed to have been planted by the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK), who maintains a presence in northern Iraq and at the border between the Kurdistan Region and Turkey. The PKK has previously targeted Turkish units in the area.  

Turkish military troops have been present in the region for over a decade. Affected areas stretch between Duhok’s Amedi areas down to Zakho, located northwest of Erbil.

This is not the first such Turkish incursion into Kurdistan’s territory. Ankara has put in place some permanent military outposts following military clashes with the PKK.

The PKK has been engaged in a three-decade war against the Turkish state calling for greater Kurdish rights in Turkey and is headquartered in Kurdistan’s Qandil Mountains.