Kurdish separatist fighters in Iraq begin laying down weapons

Forces of the regional Kurdish administration secure the area of the Jasana Cave ahead of a symbolic disarmament ceremony (Hadi Mizban/AP)

Fighters with a Kurdish separatist militant group that has waged a decades-long insurgency in Turkey have begun laying down their weapons in a symbolic ceremony in northern Iraq, the first concrete step towards a promised disarmament as part of a peace process.

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) announced in May it would disband and renounce armed conflict, ending four decades of hostilities.