Turkish soldiers conducting an operation against outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants in northern Iraq have found the bodies of 13 kidnapped Turks executed in a cave, the Turkish Ministry of National Defense said.
The identity of the 13 Turkish citizens was unclear and Turkish Minister of National Defense Hulusi Akar said their kidnapping had not previously been announced for security reasons.
Turkey launched a military operation against the PKK in northern Iraq’s Gara region on Wednesday to secure its border and find citizens who had been kidnapped previously, Akar said in a statement released by the ministry yesterday.
“In a search of a cave taken under control, the bodies of 13 of our abducted citizens were found. In a first inspection it was determined that 12 of our innocent and unarmed citizens were shot in the head and martyred, and one shot in the shoulder and martyred,” Akar said.
“According to initial information given by two terrorists captured alive, our citizens were martyred at the start of the operation by the terrorist responsible for the cave,” he said at the operation’s control center near the Iraq border which he was visiting with military chiefs.
The PKK has not issued a statement on the incident.
Akar said 48 militants were killed in the operation, and that the region where they operated was taken under control, their ammunition stores and shelters destroyed.
Three Turkish soldiers were killed and three were wounded in the operation, he said.
The operation began with airstrikes and a ground operation was then launched by soldiers who landed in the area by helicopter, the ministry said.
Turkey has carried out similar operations in northern Iraq in the past.
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