Defense Minister Yaşar Güler and Chief of General Staff Gen. Metin Gürak paid a surprise visit to the Iraqi capital of Baghdad on Tuesday, the Turkish media outlets reported. The previously unannounced visit comes at a time of escalating Turkish counterterrorism operations in Iraq.

Details of the visit, first reported by news agencies, were not disclosed but it comes about two months after Güler and Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan hosted their Iraqi counterparts in the Turkish capital of Ankara for a security summit. The summit was also attended by representatives of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), a semi-autonomous entity controlling Iraq’s north.

Türkiye eliminated a large number of terrorists linked to the PKK following the terrorist group’s attacks on Turkish troops based in Iraq’s north. The northern part of the country is home to senior cadres of the PKK hiding out in mountainous territories a few hundred kilometers from the Turkish border.

The PKK issue sticks out in Türkiye’s relations with Iraq, with Ankara repeatedly calling on Baghdad to recognize the PKK as a terrorist group.

Güler and Gürak’s visit also follows one by Ibrahim Kalın, head of the National Intelligence Organization (MIT), which hunts down PKK members in the country’s north, often through drone strikes. Kalın has met Iraq’s president and prime minister, as well as representatives of Shiite, Sunni and Turkmen groups in Iraq. His discussions involved economic and security cooperation, according to the sources.

After the PKK killed 21 Turkish soldiers in the Metina region, Ankara intensified airstrikes on PKK targets and hideouts across its border, particularly in Sulaymaniyah.

The PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the United States, Britain and the European Union – is responsible for over 40,000 civilian and security personnel deaths in Türkiye during an almost four-decadelong campaign of terror.

Since Turkish operations have driven its domestic presence to near extinction, the PKK has moved a large chunk of its operations to northern Iraq.

Ankara maintains dozens of military bases there, and it regularly launches operations against the PKK, which operates a stronghold in the Qandil Mountains, located roughly 40 kilometers (25 miles) southeast of the Turkish border in Irbil province, although the area is under de jure control of the KRG.