Turkish Forces Kill 13 Kurdish Militants in Northern Iraq

Turkish forces targeted Kurdish militants in northern Iraq with airstrikes (AFP file photo)

Asharq Al Awsat

14:19-30 July 2024 AD ـ 24 Muharram 1446 AH

Asharq Al Awsat

14:19-30 July 2024 AD ـ 24 Muharram 1446 AH

Turkish Forces Kill 13 Kurdish Militants in Northern Iraq

Turkish forces targeted Kurdish militants in northern Iraq with airstrikes (AFP file photo)

Turkish forces targeted Kurdish militants in northern Iraq with airstrikes, killing 13 members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the defense ministry said on Tuesday.

The PKK militants were "neutralized" in the Gara and Haftanin regions of northern Iraq, the ministry said in a statement.

The ministry's use of the term "neutralized" generally means killed, according to Reuters.

Türkiye's military previously conducted airstrikes in northern Iraq on Friday and destroyed 25 Kurdish militant targets, the defense ministry said in an earlier statement.

It said those targets included caves, shelters, bunkers, depots and facilities.

The PKK, which has been waging an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984, is designated a terrorist organisation by Türkiye, the United States and the European Union.

More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict.

World

Kyiv Hails Dialogue with Beijing, Hints at Potential Zelenskiy-Xi Meeting

In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, Ukraine's Foreign Ministry Dmytro Kuleba, left, poses for photos with China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi before a meeting in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou on Wednesday, July 24, 2024. (Lu Hanxin/Xinhua via AP)

17:19-30 July 2024 AD ـ 24 Muharram 1446 AH

Kyiv Hails Dialogue with Beijing, Hints at Potential Zelenskiy-Xi Meeting

Ukraine has invited China's foreign minister to visit amid growing dialogue that could eventually lead to a meeting between the two countries' leaders, Kyiv's foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

Beijing casts itself as neutral on the Kremlin's 29-month-old invasion of Ukraine but maintains close ties with Moscow and sat out a Kyiv-organized peace summit in June.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba made his first wartime visit to China last week to meet his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi. That was another sign that dialogue between Kyiv and Beijing is "developing very dynamically," said Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi.

Work toward a possible future meeting between Presidents Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Xi Jinping was constant, he added. Since the start of the war, the two have only spoken once by telephone, in April 2023.

"Did ... Minister Kuleba's visit to China bring closer a potential meeting of the leaders of Ukraine and China? It indisputably did," Tykhyi said at a briefing in Kyiv. It is, however, too early to tell when a meeting could take place, he added.

Kyiv has invited Wang to visit Ukraine and Beijing has indicated it was interested in the proposal, Tykhyi said.

"We are ready to welcome Minister Wang Yi in Ukraine to see first-hand the consequences of the Russian aggression against our country and hold deeper bilateral talks with him on a number of bilateral, regional and international issues," he said.

In China, Kuleba told Wang after a day of "very deep and concentrated" talks that Kyiv was prepared for talks on the war with Russia only if Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity were fully respected.

China, the world's second-largest economy, has provided diplomatic backing to Russia and helped keep its wartime economy afloat.

Turkish Forces Kill 13 Kurdish Militants in Northern Iraq

Turkish Forces Kill 13 Kurdish Militants in Northern Iraq

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Kyiv Hails Dialogue with Beijing, Hints at Potential Zelenskiy-Xi Meeting

Kyiv Hails Dialogue with Beijing, Hints at Potential Zelenskiy-Xi Meeting

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