Turkish military helicopter crashes during Operation Claw-Lock

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – A military helicopter of the Turkish armed forces crashed on Sunday during Operation Claw-Lock against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the ministry of defense said in a statement.

Seven out of eight soldiers have been reduced from the crashed Sikorsky-type helicopter that had to make a “hard landing”, the ministry said. It did not elaborate further details on the fate of the remaining soldier.

Although Operation Claw-Lock has been targeting alleged positions of the PKK inside the Kurdistan Region, the ministry did not disclose the crash site.

Having been launched in April, the air-and-ground military campaign has been ongoing in the mountainous areas of Kurdistan Region’s Duhok province.

In addition to the operation, Ankara regularly launches drone strikes against suspected members of the Kurdish militant group inside urban areas.

Ankara and PKK have engaged in decades-old military conflict, resulting in thousands of causalities from both sides as well as civilians.

Kurdistan Region officials regularly call on warring sides to take their fight away from the civilian-populated areas, as the bloody fighting has endangered the safety and livelihoods of the local population.

In a deadly shelling in July, at least nine Iraqi Arab tourists were killed at a summer resort in Kurdistan Region’s Zakho. Baghdad blamed Ankara for the bombardment.