PKK terrorists were released after setting fire to historic markets in northern Iraq, despite confessions admitting their crimes, an Iraqi Turkmen politician said.

Arshad al-Salihi, a member of the Iraqi Turkmen Front (ITC), told Anadolu Agency (AA) that PKK members ignited fires at Kirkuk’s Kirdarlar Inn and Qayseri Bazaar in Irbil and admitted to the crimes in court.

Despite confessions recorded in court documents, al-Salihi said the suspects were freed.

The government is not sincere in its efforts to fight against the PKK, al-Salihi said.

On May 20, a fire at Kirkuk's Ottoman-era Kirdarlar Inn left the structure and its marketplace unusable.

In a separate incident on May 5, PKK terrorists also set a fire at the Qaysari Bazaar in Irbil, destroying nearly 250 shops and warehouses and inflicting major financial losses on local business owners.

Iraq’s Interior Ministry confirmed that the fires in the bazaars of Kirkuk, Irbil, and Duhok were started by PKK members.

The PKK launched a campaign of terrorism against Türkiye in 1984 and massacred over 40,000 people, including women, children and infants since then. The group is known for using northern Iraq, near the Turkish border, as a hideout to plot terrorist attacks and launch attacks both on nearby Türkiye and locals in north Syria.

Ankara and Baghdad have been at loggerheads over Ankara's cross-border military operations against the PKK in northern Iraq, which is controlled by the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). Iraq has said the operations are a violation of its sovereignty, but Ankara says they are needed to protect itself. The neighbors signed a security pact to counter the PKK in the region.