The ministry said the soldiers were killed during a clash with "terrorists" following an attempted intrusion at the base near Metina in northern Iraq.

It had initially given the toll as five dead, but one soldier later succumbed to his wounds.

The assailants were presumed to be members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), private Turkish channel NTV reported. Ankara and its Western allies classify the PKK as a terrorist group.

Turkish authorities announced a military operation was under way in the area in response.

As a result of these deaths, the ruling AKP party and the main opposition CHP party both decided to postpone the presentation of their candidates for the March municipal elections, which had been scheduled for this weekend.

AKP party spokesman Omer Celik said the decision was taken by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Erdogan had promised that the names of the AKP candidates would be revealed on Sunday for the country's main cities, including the capital Ankara.

CHP head Ozgur Ozel said on X, formerly Twitter, that the candidate presentations and "all other events" planned, had been postponed.

Twelve Turkish soldiers were killed in late December in two separate attacks on Turkish military bases in northern Iraq.

The Turkish army regularly launches military ground and air operations against PKK fighters and their positions in northern Iraq, as well as autonomous Kurdistan or in the mountainous Iraqi region of Sinjar close to the Turkish border.

In the past 25 years Turkey has installed several dozen military bases in Iraqi Kurdistan to fight the group, which also has rear bases in the area.

The PKK, which has been involved in an armed struggle against Ankara since 1984, claimed responsibility last October for an attack on the headquarters of the Turkish interior ministry in Ankara. Two police officers were injured.

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