Two civilians killed in Turkish air strike in northern Iraq, security sources say

PHOTO CAPTION: Two Turkish Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcons fly alongside a U.S. F/A-18E Super Hornet, April 13, 2022. (Photo courtesy of Strike Fighter Squadron 81 via U.S. Defense Visual Information Distribution Service)

BAGHDAD/ANKARA (Reuters) -Two civilians have been killed in a Turkish air strike in the mountainous Sheladiz area of northern Iraq's Duhok province, two Iraqi security sources said on Friday.

Turkey's defence ministry said its forces carried out two air strikes in northern Iraq and northern Syria overnight, killing six militants in Iraq and seven in Syria. Its post on social media platform X did not provide further information.

The ministry did not say which regions the attacks targeted and it was unclear whether the ministry was referring to the same incident in northern Iraq as the security sources.

Turkey regularly carries out air strikes and cross-border operations in neighbouring Iraq as part of its offensive against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is mainly based in northern Iraq's mountainous region.

The PKK, designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the insurgency.

Turkey has also staged a series of military offensives and bombing campaigns in northern Syria against the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, which it regards as a wing of the PKK.

(Reporting by Timour Azhari in Baghdad and Tuvan Gumrukcu in Ankara; Editing by Daren Butler, Toby Chopra and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)