Turkey’s military says more than a dozen members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militant group have been killed as Turkish military aircraft conducted a series of airstrikes against terrorist hideouts in Iraq’s northern semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.

 The Turkish General Staff, in a statement published on its official Twitter page on Sunday, announced that six armed PKK militants were “neutralized” in Gara region of northern Iraq, when they were plotting an attack on a Turkish base.

Separately, Turkish airstrikes “neutralized” eight PKK terrorists in Avasin-Basyan and Metina regions.

Moreover, a Turkish soldier lost his life and four others suffered injuries when Kurdish PKK militants detonated an improvised explosive device as the former were conducting a counter-terrorism operation in northern Iraq.

The injured soldiers were reportedly brought back to Turkey in a helicopter.

The Turkish military generally uses the term “neutralize” to signify that the militants were killed, captured or surrendered.

PKK militants regularly clash with Turkish forces in the Kurdish-dominated southeast of Turkey attached to northern Iraq.

Turkey, along with the European Union and the United States, has declared the PKK a terrorist group and banned it. The militant group has been seeking an autonomous Kurdish region since 1984.

A shaky ceasefire between the PKK and the Turkish government collapsed in July 2015. Attacks on Turkish security forces have soared ever since.

Over the past few months, Turkish ground and air forces have been carrying out operations against PKK positions in the country as well as in northern Iraq and neighboring Syria.