Senior PKK official killed in Turkish drone attack in N. Iraq

BAGHDAD, Aug. 23 (Xinhua) — A Turkish drone strike on Friday killed a senior official of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and two others in Sulaymaniyah province in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region of northern Iraq, the region’s Counter-Terrorism Service said in a statement.
The incident occurred at 11:00 a.m. local time (0800 GMT) when a Turkish drone attacked a vehicle on a road near the town of Said Sadiq, southeast of the namesake provincial capital Sulaymaniyah, the statement said.
The airstrike resulted in the killing of the senior PKK official, as well as his driver and companion, and destroyed the vehicle, according to the statement.
Turkish forces frequently carry out cross-border operations targeting PKK militants in northern Iraq, especially in the Qandil Mountains, the main base of the group.
The PKK, designated as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the United States, and the European Union, has rebelled against the Turkish government for more than three decades. ■