Türkiye Says 5 Soldiers Killed by Methane Gas during Cave Search in Northern Iraq

A Turkish soldier walks next to a Turkish military vehicle (File photo/Reuters)
A Turkish soldier walks next to a Turkish military vehicle (File photo/Reuters)
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Türkiye Says 5 Soldiers Killed by Methane Gas during Cave Search in Northern Iraq

A Turkish soldier walks next to a Turkish military vehicle (File photo/Reuters)
A Turkish soldier walks next to a Turkish military vehicle (File photo/Reuters)

Five Turkish soldiers have died after exposure to methane gas on Sunday while searching a cave in northern Iraq for the remains of a fellow soldier killed by Kurdish militants in 2022, the Turkish Defense Ministry said.

Soldiers were searching a mountain cave when 19 of them were exposed to the gas, which is colorless, odorless, flammable and can cause asphyxiation in sufficient concentration.

“They were immediately transported to the hospital (but) despite all interventions, five heroic personnel were martyred,” the ministry said in a statement, The AP news reported. “Rescue operations in the area continue.”

The ministry did not give a specific location for the incident other than the “Claw-Lock Operation region,” a reference to an operation launched against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, in north Iraq in April 2022.

The Turkish unit affected by methane gas was searching for the remains of an infantry officer killed by “terrorist gunfire” during a search-and-clear operation in May 2022, the ministry said. For the last three years, teams have been hunting for his remains.

The cave was at an altitude of 852 meters (2,795 foot) and was known to have been used as a hospital by the PKK in the past, although it had since been cleared by Turkish soldiers.

The office of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the soldiers were “exposed to a high concentration of accumulated methane gas.”

Türkiye and the PKK have waged a 40-year conflict which has often spilled over into Iraq and Syria. Türkiye has set up a series of bases in northern Iraq, where the PKK has been established for decades.

The PKK, which is considered a terrorist organization by Türkiye and most of the West, announced in May that it would disband and renounce armed conflict as part of a new peace initiative with Türkiye.

Its fighters are expected to begin handing over their weapons over the next few days in the first concrete move toward disarmament.



UN-backed Team Focusing on Human Rights in Palestinian Areas Announce Resignations

Chair of the Commission Navi Pillay delivers her statement of the report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, during the 56th session of the Human Rights Council, at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Wednesday, June 19, 2024. (Martial Trezzini/Keystone via AP, File)
Chair of the Commission Navi Pillay delivers her statement of the report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, during the 56th session of the Human Rights Council, at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Wednesday, June 19, 2024. (Martial Trezzini/Keystone via AP, File)
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UN-backed Team Focusing on Human Rights in Palestinian Areas Announce Resignations

Chair of the Commission Navi Pillay delivers her statement of the report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, during the 56th session of the Human Rights Council, at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Wednesday, June 19, 2024. (Martial Trezzini/Keystone via AP, File)
Chair of the Commission Navi Pillay delivers her statement of the report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, during the 56th session of the Human Rights Council, at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Wednesday, June 19, 2024. (Martial Trezzini/Keystone via AP, File)

A team of three independent experts working for the UN's top human rights body with a focus on Israel and Palestinian areas say they are resigning, citing personal reasons and a need for change, in the panel's first such group resignation.

The resignations, announced Monday by the UN-backed Human Rights Council that set up the team, come as violence continues in Palestinian areas with few signs of letup in the Israeli military campaign against Hamas and other militants behind the Oct. 7 attacks.

The Israeli government has repeatedly criticized the panel of experts, known as the Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel, and denied their repeated requests to travel to the region or otherwise cooperate with the team, The AP news reported.

Council spokesman Pascal Sim said the move marked the first joint resignations of Commission of Inquiry members since the council was founded in 2006. The team said in a statement that the resignations had “absolutely nothing to do with any external event or pressure," while also saying they provided a good opportunity to reconstitute the panel.

Navi Pillay, 83, a former UN human rights chief who has led the commission for the last four years, said in a letter to the council president that she was resigning effective Nov. 3 because of “age, medical issues and the weight of several other commitments.”

In an interview, Pillay rejected accusations from critics who accused her of antisemitism or turning a blind eye to the Hamas attacks. She recalled how she worked closely with some Jewish lawyers in the fight against apartheid in her native South Africa and was invited to Israel as the UN rights chief from 2008 to 2014.

"Name-calling is not affecting me in any way,” she said by phone. “We have striven to remain independent. That’s what we are. We’re an independent panel. We don’t take sides ... We look at the evidence and see the direction it’s taking us.”

“People who accuse us of being anti-Semitic ... they twist the facts, they invent facts, falsify facts. I would like to see them challenge the report: Which of the facts that we have set out are incorrect?” she said.

Her commission condemned the Oct. 7 attacks three days afterward in a news release that said at the time that reports "that armed groups from Gaza have gunned down hundreds of unarmed civilians are abhorrent and cannot be tolerated. Taking civilian hostages and using civilians as human shields are war crimes.”

She expressed regret that Israel didn't allow the commission access to Israel or Palestinian areas, saying "I feel that’s an injustice to Israeli Jews because we’re not taking on board their opinion or what they’re saying.”

Pillay said she had been recently diagnosed with low platelet count and her condition has restricted her ability to travel.

Her team said it wanted to give the rights council's president — currently Ambassador Jürg Lauber of Switzerland — the ability to pick new members.

Team member Chris Sidoti said Pillay's retirement marked “an appropriate time to re-constitute the commission.” The third member, Miloon Kothari, did not provide his reasons in a letter announcing his resignation effective 0ct. 31.

Neither the independent experts nor the council have any power over countries, but aim to spotlight rights abuses and collect information about suspected perpetrators that could be used by the International Criminal Court or other courts focusing on international justice.

The letters were sent to the council president last week but only became public Monday.

Last week, the US government announced sanctions against another independent expert mandated by the council, Francesca Albanese, who has also focused on Israel and the Palestinians. Albanese has accused Israel of genocide against the Palestinians, a claim Israel has denied.

Albanese said in an interview last week with The Associated Press that she was shocked by the US decision. She has not resigned.