A Turkish drone on Monday struck a vehicle that allegedly belonged to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in the village of Tel Qasab in Iraq’s Sinjar district, resulting in multiple casualties, according to a federal police source cited by Iraqi media. PKK-linked media reported that two journalists and their driver, along with a bystander, were wounded in the attack.

Turkey has repeatedly targeted alleged PKK operatives in Sinjar in recent years in a bid to eliminate the group’s hold over the area, which is home to Iraq’s ethnic Yazidis and forms a strategic land bridge for PKK militants moving between Iraq and Kurdish-controlled northeast Syria. The PKK established a foothold in Sinjar in 2014 — when the Islamic State unleashed its genocidal campaign against the Yazidis — shepherding thousands to safety through a corridor running to Syria then back to Mount Sinjar.

The region is currently dominated by a patchwork of forces, including Iran-backed Shiite militias and Yazidi armed groups that are loyal to the PKK and that cooperate with one another tactically; others are more independent. In April, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Sinjar needed to be cleared of the PKK. “Sinjar is right next to the Syrian border, and as long as the PKK prevails in Sinjar, its interaction with [PKK-linked groups] on the other side of the border will continue. This must be put to an end,” Fidan said in a television interview.

Monday's attack comes amid widening Turkish operations against PKK targets inside Iraqi Kurdistan, with ground troops being moved from Cukurca in Turkey’s Hakkari province to reinforce and expand Turkish bases and outposts in the vicinity of Zap, Metina and Gare, a string of mountains lying immediately south of the Turkish border in Dahuk province, a local PKK commander told Al-Monitor.

“Turkey has been seeking to drive us out of this territory for the past three years, but since April, the Turkish army has been using paved roads to move their troops in, starting a fresh offensive on July 3 to cut off Gare Mountain from our other forces,” the commander said. “They are using warplanes, drones and helicopters; they are using every weapon in their arsenal.” Two battalions are carrying out the ground operations, the PKK commander said.

Murat Karayilan, the veteran PKK commander in charge of the group’s armed wing, the........

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