Two members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) were killed on Sunday and another was seriously injured in a Turkish attack on a car in Sinjar, west of Nineveh governorate in north Iraq.
The Counter-Terrorism Group in the Kurdistan Region reported that a Turkish drone targeted a car of PKK-linked elements, killing two militants and wounding another.
It said the attack took place in a mountainous area between the villages of Bara and Bahrava in the district of Sinjar.
Later, the Turkish Defense Ministry confirmed the killing of two PKK militants as part of operation claw-lock that Ankara launched in northern Iraq last April.
The statement said that northern Iraq and northern Syria will not be for terrorists and that the Turkish forces are determined to dry up terrorism at its source.
Türkiye launched the operation to target the PKK’s strongholds in Iraq's northern Metina, Zap and Avasin-Basyan regions, near the Turkish border.
Sinjar’s attack on Sunday comes two months after eight people were killed and 26 were injured by Turkish artillery fire on the hill village of Parakh in Zakho district.
In an unusually strong rebuke, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi warned Türkiye that Iraq reserves the "right to retaliate," calling the artillery fire a "flagrant violation" of sovereignty.
Turkish forces have perpetrated once more a flagrant violation of Iraqi sovereignty," Kadhimi said on Twitter, condemning the harm caused to "the life and security of Iraqi citizens."
A Foreign Ministry statement signaled Ankara’s willingness to do anything to uncover the truth behind the incident.
The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) strongly condemned the deadly artillery shelling and said in a statement that civilians are once again suffering the indiscriminate effects of explosive weapons.
