Five Turkish soldiers killed in attack on military base in Iraq

(Patria) - Five Turkish soldiers were killed and eight were wounded in an attack on a Turkish military base in northern Iraq, the Turkish Ministry of Defense announced on Friday, AFP reported.

The ministry announced that the soldiers were killed during clashes with "terrorists" after an "attempted infiltration" of the base near Metina in northern Iraq.

The attackers are presumed to be members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which Ankara and its Western allies classify as a terrorist group, private Turkish channel NTV reported.

Turkish authorities announced that a military operation is underway in the area in response to the attack.

Twelve Turkish soldiers were killed late last month in two separate attacks on Turkish military bases in northern Iraq.

The Turkish army regularly launches land and air military operations against PKK fighters and their positions in northern Iraq, as well as in autonomous Kurdistan or in the mountainous Iraqi region of Sinjar near the Turkish border.

Over the past 25 years, Turkey has established several dozen military bases in Iraqi Kurdistan to fight the group, which also has rear bases in the area.

The PKK, which has been engaged in an armed struggle against Ankara since 1984, claimed responsibility last October for an attack on the headquarters of the Turkish Ministry of Interior in Ankara, in which two police officers were injured.