SOFIA — The Turkish military has claimed the killing of 40 Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) fighters in northern Iraq and 30 more in northeast Syria on Tuesday, the Turkish General Staff said. 

According to a statement released by the Turkish General Staff the Turkish security forces conducted a series of  "counter-terrorism" airstrikes on the PKK targets in the early hours on Tuesday at around 2:00 a.m. (GMT+2)

The targets were located on the Sinjar mountain in northern Iraq and the Karacok mountain in northeast Syria, Anadolu Agency reported. 

The official statement pointed out that the airstrikes were carried out in order to prevent any PKK fighters, arms, ammunitions or explosives to enter the territory of Turkey.

However, the air raids resulted in the death of five Kurdistan Region’s Peshmerga forces while nine others sustained injuries. Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) issued a statement to decry the attack on Peshmerga positions, saying such offensives are “unacceptable”.