Militants from the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) attacked a military border post in the Çukurca district of southeastern Hakkari province, near the Iraqi border, on Monday, only a day after Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim visited the same installation.
The Çukurca 2nd Border Brigade came under shelling from the Iraqi side of the border by PKK militants, the military said in a statement. The Turkish army struck PKK targets immediately with artillery fire following the attack.
The attack is of symbolic importance given that it took place after Yildirim’s visit to the post on Sunday to boost the morale of border troops fighting the terrorist group.
Turkish warplanes also carried out air strikes against PKK targets in northern Iraq on Monday.
Close to 150 PKK militants have been killed in Çukurca over the past four days, while 28 members of the security forces also died in bloody clashes.
The PKK has been waging a four-decade-long war against the Turkish state to carve out an autonomous zone in Turkey’s Kurdish Southeast. The group is listed as a terrorist organization by the US, the EU and Turkey.