Turkish president: 30 PKK militants killed in overnight raids across Iraqi border

ANKARA, Turkey, Sept. 29 (UPI) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Tuesday said an overnight cross-border raid into northern Iraq resulted in the deaths of 30 rebels with the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK.

Erdoğan made the announcement while addressing village elders at the presidential palace, saying operations were continuing "both inside and outside the country," according to Turkish media.

The Turkish military meanwhile released a statement saying at least 25 PKK militants had been killed during airstrikes in the Gara region of northern Iraq and in an operation in the Çukurca region of southeastern Turkey's Hakkari province.

It was not clear whether Erdoğan and the Turkish General Staff were referring to the same operation.

The strike comes the same day two Turkish police officers were buried after being killed by masked PKK militants in the Adana province on Monday.

Since a 2013 cease-fire agreement broke down in July, the Turkish government has conducted a series of operations against the PKK, which it, along with the United States and the European Union, considers a terrorist organization.

Earlier this month, Turkish ground troops were reported to have entered northern Iraq in pursuit of two 20-man teams of PKK fighters following a series of attacks against Turkish security personnel. Airstrikes in the area killed another 40 of the rebels.

Following a July suicide bombing that killed more than 30 people in Suruc, Turkey began conducting airstrikes against Islamic State positions in northern Syria and PKK camps in northern Iraq.

The campaign has created complications in the complex alliance system against IS forces; the United States, a NATO ally of Turkey, has provided air support, training and weaponry for Kurdish peshmerga fighters in northern Iraq as well as Kurdish YPG fighters in northern Syria -- both of whom have scored multiple battlefield victories against IS forces.

Turkey justified strikes against the PKK after militants with the group reportedly claimed responsibility for killing two police officers in the southeastern city of Gaziantep.

The Turkish government has accused the PKK of using the two-year cease-fire to compile weapons, but opposition critics say the Erdoğan administration ended the agreement after the pro-Kurd Peoples' Democratic Party, or HDP, deprived the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AK party, of its majority rule during elections earlier this year.