The Turkish Defense Ministry said on Saturday that six Turkish soldiers were killed and another injured in an attack on a Turkish military base in northern Iraq.
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The Turkish military base near Hakurk in northern Iraq was attacked on Friday evening by members of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party), which has been designated a terrorist group by Ankara and its Western allies, the ministry said.
In response, a military operation is underway in the region, authorities said.
The Turkish army regularly carries out military ground and air operations against PKK militants and their positions in northern Iraq, the autonomous Kurdistan or the mountainous region of Sinjar.
Over the past 25 years, Turkey has established several dozen military bases in Iraqi Kurdistan to fight the group, which also maintains hinterland bases in that region.
The PKK, which has been engaged in an armed struggle against the Turkish authorities since 1984, claimed responsibility for an attack on the Turkish Interior Ministry headquarters in Ankara last October, in which two police officers were injured.