Turkey accuses PKK militants of executing 13 Turkish captives in Iraqi Kurdistan
Turkey could use the deaths as justification to launch an operation against the PKK in Yazidi-dominated Sinjar, something Ankara has been lobbying Baghdad to greenlight.
Outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants have killed 13 Turkish hostages, identified mostly as servicemen and policemen, in a cave complex in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region’s mountainous Gare area where the militants are known to have multiple bases, Turkish officials said Feb. 14.
The news has had a bombshell effect and risks escalating ethnic tensions between Turks and the country’s large Kurdish minority. The hashtag “Kahrolsun PKK" — which is Turkish for “May the PKK be damned” — was trending on Turkish Twitter as Al-Monitor went to press.
