US welcomes PKK terror group's destruction of weapons in northern Iraq

The US State Department welcomed Thursday the recent destruction of weapons by the PKK terrorist group in northern Iraq as part of a disarmament process.

"We consider the PKK a foreign terrorist organization, so any move to lay down arms and remove that threat is a welcome step," spokesperson Tammy Bruce said at a State Department news briefing.

She was referring to video footage that showed PKK terrorists publicly burning their weapons on July 11 in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) area. "They wanted people to see them actually doing it," she said.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the US and the European Union, convened its congress in May and announced its dissolution following a February call by its imprisoned ringleader Abdullah Ocalan for an end to the decades-long attacks.

On July 11, a group of 30 PKK terrorists, including 15 women, surrendered and destroyed their weapons in Iraq's Sulaymaniyah province by throwing them into a burning cauldron.