Two senior Iraqi officers and a soldier were killed in an airstrike by a Turkish drone in Sidakan area of Erbil province in Iraq’s Kurdistan region on Tuesday.

Brigadier General Zubeir Hali, commander of 3rd Regiment from Iraq’s border guards and Mohammad Rashid, commander of 2nd Brigade of the border guards in the area lost their lives in the attack, local Iraqi officials said.

According to local sources, Zubeir and Mohammed were meeting the PKK commanders in the area to convince them to withdraw from the civilian-populated areas when they came under the Turkish airstrike.

Turkish Armed Forces have launched the Claw-Eagle and Claw-Tiger operations external operations against PKK members in Iraqi Kurdistan.

The attacks have taken place in the Qandil Mountains, the Sinjar District, and Makhmur, against PKK’s targets. Claw-Eagle, the air campaign, began on 15 June 2020. Claw-Tiger, the ground campaign, was launched on June 17.

The ongoing conflict between Turkey and PKK has resulted in nearly forty thousand deaths since 1984 when PKK waged an insurgency against Turkish State. (ILKHA)