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

The move comes after the leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) urged his group to formally disband and disarm.

The disarmament process will start under tight security in Iraqi Kurdistan and is expected to take all summer.