Fighters with a Kurdish separatist militant group that has waged a decades-long insurgency in Turkey have begun laying down their weapons.

Thirty Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants burned their weapons at the mouth of a cave in northern Iraq on Friday, marking a symbolic but significant step toward ending a decades-long insurgency against Turkey.

Erdogan hails symbolic destruction of arms as a step toward 'terror-free Turkey,' as top PKK fighter says jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan must be set free for rapprochement to work