35 people were killed by Turkish air strike on the Iraq border Thursday.

35 people were killed by Turkish air strike on the Iraq border Thursday, in an attack which a pro-Kurdish political party described as a "massacre" of civilians.

Turkey's military command said it launched an air strike on PKK militants after an intelligence drone spotted a group of people moving toward its sensitive southeastern border under cover of darkness late Wednesday.

The pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) confirmed the death toll in a statement, saying that the dead people were among a group of 35 to 40, aged from 16 to 20, who had crossed the border for “smuggling purposes.”

Meanwhile, local security sources said the group was “smuggling gas and sugar into Turkey from northern Iraq” and may have been “mistaken” for Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) terrorists.

The Turkish military began an operation in northern Iraq in October after 24 Turkish troops were killed in an attack by the PKK in the town of Cukurca near the Iraqi border. The army killed 36 PKK members in Kazan Valley of Hakkari province.