On Monday, Turkey’s Defence Ministry announced that 12 servicemen had perished as a result of methane gas exposure while searching caverns in Iraq’s Kurdish area. According to the ministry, the event happened Sunday within a Duhok cave as a team was trying to recover the body of a Turkish soldier who was killed in a military operation against the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
In addition to the previous number of casualties, the ministry stated on X that “four other of our heroic comrades in arms, affected by methane gas, have died… bringing the total number of victims to 12.” The source of the methane gas in the caverns was not further explained.
According to the government, Kurdish fighters had shot the soldier whose corpse the forces were looking for dead in May 2022. At the time, Turkey was bombing PKK strongholds in northern Duhok as part of Operation Claw Lock.
The event coincides with ongoing negotiations and fresh peace initiatives to put an end to the conflict between Turkey and the PKK. The militant organisation has consented to disarm and put an end to its decades-long violent conflict.
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