Turkey says will fight terror after death of Iraqi border guards
by AFP Staff Writers
Istanbul (AFP) Jan 25, 2025
Turkey vowed on Saturday to work closely with Iraq to secure their common frontier after two Iraqi border guards were killed in a shooting blamed on outlawed PKK militants.

On Friday, Iraq's interior ministry said the two Iraqi guards were killed near the Turkish border in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region.

"When the Iraqi border forces were carrying out their duties securing the Iraqi-Turkish border, they were fired at by terrorists from the banned PKK organisation" in Zakho district, the ministry said.

A third guard was wounded, it added.

The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has fought a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state, has several outposts in Iraq's northern Kurdistan region, which also hosts Turkish military bases.

Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Oncu Keceli said on X that "we are deeply saddened by the deaths of two border guards as a result of the attack carried out by the PKK terrorist organisation".

"It is clear that the PKK terrorist organisation poses a threat to the national security of Turkey and Iraq and violates Iraq's sovereignty," he said.

"We will continue to fight together with Iraq against terrorism".

The attack comes ahead of a planned visit by Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan to Baghdad on Sunday.

Iraq ministry says two border guards killed by PKK fire
Arbil, Iraq (AFP) Jan 24, 2025 - A shooting which officials blamed on the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) killed two Iraqi border guards on Friday near the Turkish boundary in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, Iraq's interior ministry said.

The PKK, which has fought a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state, has several positions in Iraq's northern Kurdistan region, which also hosts Turkish military bases used to strike Kurdish insurgents.

"When the Iraqi border forces were carrying out their duties securing the Iraqi-Turkish border... they were fired at by terrorists from the banned PKK organisation" in Zakho district, the interior ministry said in a statement.

The two guards were killed and a third wounded, it added.

The ministry later announced, according to the official news agency INA, that two of the PKK members "who attacked the patrol" were killed during "search operations in the area in pursuit of the perpetrators".

A border guard official told AFP that the guards were patrolling a village near the Turkish border when "shooting and clashes" with the PKK broke out.

Baghdad deploys federal guards along its border with Turkey in coordination with the government of the autonomous Kurdistan region and its forces, the peshmerga.

The Iraqi federal authorities in Baghdad have recently sharpened their tone against the PKK. Last year, Baghdad quietly listed the group as a "banned organisation" -- though Ankara demands that the Iraqi government do more in the fight against the militant group.

Turkey along with the United States deems the PKK a "terrorist" organisation.

Turkey has conducted hundreds of strikes against PKK fighters in Iraq's Kurdistan region.

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