<p>ANKARA, Turkey — Three Turkish soldiers were killed in a new Turkish military offensive against a Kurdish militants in northern Iraq, Turkey’s Defense Ministry said Thursday.</p>
<p>Two of soldiers were killed Wednesday in a clash that erupted in northern Iraq’s Gara region on the first day of the latest Turkish operation, the ministry said. Another soldier died of his wounds on Thursday.</p>
<p>The military said Turkish jets retaliated by striking targets of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, in Gara.</p>
<p>There was no immediate comment from the militant group on the clashes.</p>
<p>Turkey has carried out numerous cross-border ground and aerial offensives against the PKK, which maintains bases in northern Iraq.</p>
<p>The group began an insurgency against Turkey in the mainly Kurdish southeast in 1984 and the conflict has killed tens of thousands of people. The PKK is considered to be a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union.</p>
