BAGHDAD: Iraqi police on Monday announced the arrest of three suspected members of a militant group accused of arson attacks in the country’s north.

The announcement comes at a time of heightened tension in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region, where the Turkish army is conducting operations against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which is listed as a “terrorist” group by Ankara and several Western allies.

In a statement, the PKK’s political bureau “rejected” what it said were “baseless allegations.”

It called on “the Iraqi state and the Ministry of the Interior to act responsibly in the face of directives coming from Turkish intelligence” and to “identify the real perpetrators” of the fires.

The fires in 2023 and 2024 struck markets and shopping centers in Kirkuk, Irbil, and Dohuk, Iraqi Ministry of Interior spokesman Moqdad Miri said during a press conference on Monday, saying that the suspects made “confessions.”

One suspect was arrested at the end of May, and “chemical products” used to start fires were found in his vehicle, Miri said.

“The entity responsible for execution ... is the PKK organization, a banned organization,” he added.

He added that the objective was to “harm the commercial interests of a country with which they are in direct opposition,” and “impact the security and economic situation” of the autonomous region.

The PKK, which has fought a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state, has a presence in northern Iraq, as does Turkiye, which has operated from several dozen military bases there against the PKK.