A group of 30 Kurdish fighters have ceremonially burned their weapons in northern Iraq, marking a major step toward ending a decades-long insurgency.

Turkey must push through legal reforms to allow PKK militants to return home without fear of being jailed or killed, a top commander told AFP after the Kurdish militant group began disarming Friday.

Kurdish militants want to return to Turkey and enter mainstream politics, one of the PKK's joint leaders told AFP on Friday after the group's fighters began destroying their arms at

The imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party has renewed his call for fighters to disarm. In a video message on Wednesday, Abdullah Ocalan emphasized the importance of abandoning armed conflict and embracing peace through politics.