Turkey had announced the operation on northern Iraq on April 18

Turkey's Ministry of Defense announced on Saturday the killing of two Turkish occupation soldiers in occupied northern Iraq.

The ministry said in a statement that an IED was detonated in the Operation Claw-Lock area of operations, in the occupied region.

The explosion resulted in the death of one soldier and the wounding of three others. One of the wounded later died in the hospital.

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— T.C. Millî Savunma Bakanlığı (@tcsavunma) June 12, 2022

Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar announced on April 18 the launching of a cross-border military offensive against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants in northern Iraq.

On May 25, Akar announced that the first phase of the offensive was completed, and that Operation Claw-Lock will continue "until the threat on the border with Iraq has been eliminated."

The PKK is a Kurdish militant political organization and armed guerrilla movement that has been fighting Ankara since 1984 in a war that has claimed more than 40,000 lives. Turkey has conducted numerous military operations against the PKK, which is based in northern Iraq.