Overview

• Twelve soldiers died after inhaling colorless, odorless methane while searching for the remains of an infantry officer killed in May 2022.
• Nineteen troops were overcome by the gas inside an 852-meter-altitude cave that was once used as a PKK field hospital.
• The operation is part of Turkey’s multi-year Claw-Lock campaign against PKK militants in northern Iraq.
• The incident highlights the unpredictable hazards of gas accumulation in underground hideouts used by insurgent groups.
• The fatalities coincide with the PKK’s imminent disarmament under a new peace initiative aimed at ending four decades of conflict.