Some 11 PKK terrorists have been eliminated in airstrikes by the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) in northern Iraq, the Defense Ministry announced Friday.

The TSK and the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) have stepped up operations against terrorist groups abroad in recent years. Counterterrorism operations largely target PKK and its affiliates. They concentrate on northern parts of Türkiye's neighbors Syria and Iraq, where the terrorist group exploits a security vacuum to operate freely.

Turkish security forces generally carry out airstrikes, employing drones, but occasionally, they bring terrorism suspects alive.

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.

PKK violence was initially raging in rural regions of southeastern Türkiye, but the terrorists have moved a large chunk of operations to a stronghold in the Qandil Mountains in northern Iraq after successive Turkish operations.