DOHA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th August, 2020) The Iraqi government condemned on Tuesday Turkish drone strike in the country's northern province of Erbil, as a result of which two Iraqi border guards were killed, a spokesperson for the country's presidential office said.
Earlier in the day, the Iraqi security forces said that at least two officers had been killed in a strike against a border guard military vehicle in the Sidekan area. The Al-Sumaria tv channel reported five dead Iraqi servicemen, as well as ten members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
"The repeated military violations by Turkey against Iraq are a dangerous violation of Iraqi sovereignty, international law and the UN Charter," the office said in a statement on Twitter, calling on Turkey "to immediately stop all military operations in order to establish good-neighborly relations, dialogue and resolve border problems between the two neighboring countries through negotiations."
The Turkish government has been fighting the PKK, which seeks to establish a Kurdish autonomy in Turkey, since the early 1980s. The PKK and Ankara signed a ceasefire agreement in 2013, but it collapsed just two years later over several terror attacks allegedly committed by PKK militants. Since many PKK bases are located in northern Iraq, Ankara regularly conducts land and air operations in the region.
