Iraqi authorities summoned Turkey’s ambassador in Baghdad on Friday after Ankara said it killed eight militants from the PKK. Turkey said it would continue attacking the PKK as long as it sought refuge in Iraq, Reuters reported.

In a statement on Twitter, Turkey’s armed forces said they carried out air strikes in northern Iraq on December 14 and 15, killing seven militants. It was not immediately clear whether those casualties were in addition Friday’s toll.

In a speech on Saturday, Erdogan said Turkish air strikes against PKK targets in the Iraqi region of Sinjar earlier this week had “turned those places into their graveyards.”

“We will bury them in the holes they dug,” he told supporters in Turkey’s southwestern city of Denizli.

Erdogan threatened to launch a ground offensive in northern Iraq earlier this year. This week he also announced an imminent operation against a Kurdish militia in neighboring Syria.

“The activities of the PKK terrorist organisation in the territory of Iraq and Syria have become a national security issue for Turkey,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said.

Turkey’s operations “will continue as long as terror organisations nest on Iraqi soil and as long as Turkey’s security needs require it to,” Aksoy said.

Reporter’s code: 50101