Nine Turkish soldiers were killed in an attack on a base in northern Iraq on Friday, Turkey’s defense ministry announced.
Turkey has operated several dozen military posts in northern Iraq for the past 25 years in its decades-old war against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a group designated by Turkey and much of the international community as a terrorist organization.
Ankara announced the deaths of nine soldiers on Friday, who “were martyred in a clash with terrorists trying to infiltrate the base.”
Initially, the ministry stated that five soldiers had been killed and eight others were wounded, three of whom were in critical condition. Subsequently, the number of fatalities was changed multiple times until the ministry’s final update on Friday, which confirmed the death of nine soldiers.
A retaliatory military operation is being carried out in the region, the ministry said, while adding that the military “neutralized 15 terrorists.”
According to Turkish media reports, the attack occurred near Zap.
In December, 12 Turkish soldiers were killed over two days in separate attacks in northern Iraq.
Following those attacks Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called for retaliation against “terrorists” in northern Iraq and Syria, with the Turkish military launching a new wave of airstrikes on the Kurdish-held parts of those two countries.