The incident took place on Friday morning between the villages of Soriya and Shilan in the Zakho area where the border guards were on patrol, according to the source, speaking to Rudaw on condition of anonymity.
One of the dead has been named as Ali Ramazan, a 38-year-old father of seven children.
“We got a call in the morning, they said ‘Ali is wounded. It was the PKK, they shot at him on the road.’ That’s all we know, nothing else. It was around ten in the morning and until now we do not know at the end how he was martyred, whether it was a stand-off or an ambush,” Ramazan’s brother told Rudaw.
The other border guard has been identified as Mehvan Naji.
Roj News, affiliated with the PKK, said they were killed by Turkey.
“The occupying Turkish army bombarded an Iraqi border checkpoint, causing the death of two soldiers and one wounded,” it reported.
Founded in 1978, the PKK initially called for the establishment of an independent Kurdistan but now calls for autonomy. The group, which has bases in the Kurdistan Region, is designated a terrorist organization by Turkey.
Turkey began intensifying its decades-long war against the PKK in Duhok province last summer, looking to secure the border region.
Additional reporting by Gharib Majid.
Updated at 03:02 pm
