The PKK terrorist group's presence in Iraq constitutes a threat to Turkey and harms bilateral relations, three Iraqi lawmakers said Tuesday.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Majid Shinghali, a deputy for the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), said the Iraqi people generally rejected the PKK's presence in the country.

"The PKK has no role in the Mosul operation," Shinghali said, referring to an ongoing military campaign - now in its fourth week - to recapture Iraq's northern city of Mosul from the Daesh terrorist group.

The PKK's participation, he added, would only serve to "hinder" the ongoing military operation.

Hamed al-Mutlaq, for his part, a member of Iraq's Al-Wataniya parliamentary bloc, said, "We mustn't allow the presence on Iraqi territory of a force [i.e., the PKK] that is opposed to our neighbor [i.e., Turkey]."

"This harms our relations [with Ankara]," he said. "We must ground our relations with neighboring countries on the principles of friendship and peace."

Abdul-Karim Abtan, another Al-Wataniya deputy, told Anadolu Agency, "We are opposed to the notion of harboring terrorist organizations that threaten the security of our neighbors."

Such a policy, he went on to assert, "does not serve Iraqi interests."

"Nor does it help our relations with Turkey," Abtan stressed, saying Iraq must be purged of such groups lest the country "become a battlefield."