Baghdad, May 24 (IANS): Three Yazidi militiamen affiliated with the Turkish Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) were killed in a Turkish airstrike in Iraq's northern province of Nineveh.

The incident occurred at 5:00 a.m. local time (0200 GMT) on Tuesday when a Turkish aircraft bombarded the headquarters of a Yazidi militia, known as the Sinjar Protection Units (YBS), near the town of Sinjar, nearly 120 km west of Nineveh's provincial capital Mosul, killing three militiamen, said a statement by the Counter-Terrorism Service of Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.

The YBS is a Yazidi militia formed in Iraq in 2007 to protect the Yazidi community in Iraq. The group has strong links to the PKK group, Xinhua news agency reported.

PKK is listed as a "terrorist" group by Turkey, the US, and the EU, and the Turkish forces frequently carry out ground operations, airstrikes and artillery bombardments against its positions in northern Iraq, especially the Qandil Mountains, the main base of the PKK.