Iraqi Kurds warn PKK amid Turkey air strikes

Ankara launched raids against the group on July 24 after its members killed two police officers in retaliation for a suicide attack in the southeast town of Suruc last month that was carried out against Kurdish activists by a Turkish citizen with suspected ties to the Islamic State.

According to Agri Governor’s Office, a tractor laden with around two tons of explosives hit the Karabulak Gendarmerie Station, some 15 kilometers (9 miles) from Agri’s Dogubeyazit town at around 3 a.m. local time (0000 GMT).

The wounded soldiers were taken to a local hospital while the PKK militants staged an ambush to prevent reinforcements and medical teams from reaching the station.

The attack comes amid an escalation of violence between the government and the Kurdish rebels, with Turkey conducting nearly daily airstrikes at PKK bases in northern Iraq, and the rebels attacking security forces.

The situation has left a fragile peace process, initiated in 2012, in tatters. Yet the vast majority had affiliation with the PKK, which Turkey and the United States consider a terrorist organization.

PKK had blown up the Kirkuk-Yumurtalik oil pipeline running through Turkey’s Sirnak province.

The statement also stressed the council’s “commitment not to allow any attack on Turkey from Iraqi territory”.

Turkish strikes against the PKK in northern Iraq killed at least six people on Saturday, officials said, as Ankara’s bombardment of the Kurdish rebel group entered its second week. Turkey’s foreign ministry said on Saturday the strike on Zargala was targeting senior PKK commanders and accused PKK militants of using civilians as human shields. Turkey had not previously been involved in fighting in Syria’s conflict.

“One drawback of the anti-PKK operations of the Turkish security, especially of those in Iraq, is it causes concerns among the U.S. and European decision makers”, political analyst Murat Yetkin warned.

Turkey began a campaign of air strikes on Kurdish militants in northern Iraq and on Kurdish PKK and Islamic State fighters in Syria on July 24, in what Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu called a “synchronised fight against terror”.

The Turkish government and the jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan struck an agreement in 2013 which would gradually end the violence and pave the way toward a permanent peace. He also demanded that Turkey refrain from bombing civilians.

Soon after, Turkish warplanes began pummelling PKK camps and positions in the Qandil Mountains in northern Iraq, engaging in an intense air campaign that has killed hundreds.

“The continuous attacks and theft serve only to damage the economic viability and the security of the Kurdistan Region”, the statement added.