Four 'PKK militants' killed in Turkish drone attack on car in Iraqi Kurdistan

Four people were killed on Friday morning in a Turkish drone strike in Iraqi Kurdistan, Kurdish counter-terror forces said.

The drone targeted a "Jeep-type car" carrying militants from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the district of Kalar, Sulaimaniyah province, the Directorate General of Counter-Terrorism said.

Four people in the car were killed, and a fifth taken to hospital for treatment, according to the statement.

The PKK, a Kurdish guerilla force founded to fight for more Kurdish autonomy in Turkey, has battled Turkish forces for decades in a conflict that has killed 40,000 people, many of them civilians. 

Turkey regularly conducts air and ground operations in neighbouring Iraqi Kurdistan to root out the PKK, which has bases in the area. Civilians are often caught in the crossfire.

Ankara has also threatened to launch a new operation against Kurdish forces in northern Syria with ties to the PKK.

The attack in Kalar follows Turkish air strikes in the Yazidi heartland of Sinjar on Wednesday - including a strike on a marketplace that killed a 12-year-old boy.