The ministry said the soldier was killed by “harassment fire” by the militants in a region where Turkey has engaged in Operation Claw-Lock against the PKK since 2019.

Headquartered in northern Iraq, the PKK has been fighting against Turkey for Kurdish self-rule inside Turkey since 1984 and is considered a terrorist organization by Ankara, Washington and a majority of European capitals.

The attack comes at a time when Turkey has intensified its offensive against the militant group in an effort to clear it from the Iraq-Turkey border areas and establish at least a 40-kilometer-deep security zone in northern Iraq.