Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region on Tuesday said Turkish air strikes in which six of its security forces were killed overnight were "unacceptable".
The peshmerga, the region's armed forces, said in the statement however that the apparent accident should be blamed on Turkey's rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), whose affiliates were the target of the strikes.
"The death of the peshmerga is regrettable and the strike on the peshmerga by Turkish warplanes is unacceptable," the statement said.