Iraq Says Kurdish Separatist Group in Türkiye Attacked Iraqi Border Guards, Killing 2

A member of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) carries an automatic rifle on a road in the Qandil mountains in northern Iraq. (AFP)
A member of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) carries an automatic rifle on a road in the Qandil mountains in northern Iraq. (AFP)
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Iraq Says Kurdish Separatist Group in Türkiye Attacked Iraqi Border Guards, Killing 2

A member of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) carries an automatic rifle on a road in the Qandil mountains in northern Iraq. (AFP)
A member of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) carries an automatic rifle on a road in the Qandil mountains in northern Iraq. (AFP)

Iraq’s Interior Ministry said Friday in a statement that two members of the Iraqi border guards were killed and another wounded in an attack that it said was carried out by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, in the area of Zakho, in northwestern Iraq near the borders with Türkiye and Syria.

Iraq last year officially banned the PKK, a Kurdish separatist group that has waged an insurgency against Türkiye since the 1980s and is considered by Ankara to be a terrorist group.

A security official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment said the PKK has previously targeted military points of the Kurdish Peshmerga forces and the Iraqi border guards.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan is set to visit Baghdad on Sunday, where he is expected to discuss regional security issues and Turkish military operations against the PKK and affiliated groups.

The US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which have controlled northeast Syria for the past decade, is under attack by the Syrian National Army, an umbrella organization of Turkish-backed armed groups, which regards the SDF as an extension of the PKK.



5 Israeli Soldiers Charged with Assault on a Palestinian Detainee 

Israeli soldiers walk over the rubble of damaged buildings at Tulkarem refugee camp, in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, 19 February 2025. (EPA)
Israeli soldiers walk over the rubble of damaged buildings at Tulkarem refugee camp, in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, 19 February 2025. (EPA)
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5 Israeli Soldiers Charged with Assault on a Palestinian Detainee 

Israeli soldiers walk over the rubble of damaged buildings at Tulkarem refugee camp, in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, 19 February 2025. (EPA)
Israeli soldiers walk over the rubble of damaged buildings at Tulkarem refugee camp, in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, 19 February 2025. (EPA)

Israeli military prosecutors have charge five soldiers with assault over an attack on a Palestinian detainee in which they sodomized him with a knife.

The military said the July 5, 2024, attack in the Sde Teiman facility “caused severe physical injury to the detainee, including cracked ribs, a punctured lung and an inner rectal tear.”

It said the soldiers took the detainee to a separate area, blindfolded and handcuffed, before assaulting him. It said the evidence for the attack was “extensive” and included footage from a security camera.

The five were among nine Israeli reservists arrested last July over the attack. A defense lawyer at the time denied the allegations, saying the soldiers responded with force when the detainee attacked them.

Their arrest triggered angry protests by supporters demanding their release, including members of parliament and at least two government ministers. Hard-liners in Israel have called for harsh treatment of suspected Hamas fighters.