Iraqi media outlets reported that Iraqi Defense Minister Thabet al-Abbasi expressed concerns over the PKK terrorist group, especially its expanding outreach in southern and central Iraq. Al-Abbasi noted in remarks published on Tuesday that the terrorist group was recruiting people in al-Muthanna and Nasiriyah.

The minister was also quoted saying that Iraq was working on a deal with Türkiye to address the issue, referring to a similar deal with Iran. Iraq and Iran signed a border security agreement in 2023 for the disarmament of Kurdish groups in Iran. The PKK has an Iranian affiliate.

Al-Abbasi oversaw Baghdad’s signing of a deal with Türkiye with his Turkish counterpart Yaşar Güler in August for military and security coordination and counterterrorism.

The PKK, which has massacred over 40,000 people in Türkiye in a four-decadelong terror campaign, is not designated a terrorist organization in Iraq but is banned from launching operations against Türkiye from Iraqi territory.

Since Turkish operations have driven its domestic presence to near extinction, the PKK has moved a large chunk of its operations to northern Iraq.

Ankara maintains dozens of military bases there, and it regularly launches operations against the PKK, which uses a stronghold in the Qandil Mountains, located roughly 40 kilometers (25 miles) southeast of the Turkish border in Irbil.

The PKK also occupies Sinjar, Makhmour and has a foothold in Sulaymaniyah, which sits in northern Iraq’s semiautonomous north controlled by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), where the central Iraqi government has little influence.

Since the start of the year, Ankara has hinted at a final summer offensive against the PKK in both northern Iraq and Syria, where the PKK operates with its local offshoot, the YPG.

Güler recently said that Operation Claw-Lock, launched in April 2022, would be completed before the winter to sever the ties between Syria and Qandil.

Türkiye aims to wipe out the PKK from its borders and create a 40-kilometer-deep security corridor along the Iraqi and Syrian borders.

Türkiye’s Ministry of National Defense on Tuesday announced that two PKK terrorists were eliminated in northern Iraq’s Gara region by the Turkish army, while 11 terrorists were eliminated in Syria’s north.