The Turkish army continues strikes against Kurdish militants in Iraq and Syria
The Turkish army said that they destroyed 23 targets in overnight air strikes on Kurdish militants in northern Iraq and Syria, in a new escalation of the conflict on its southern border.
The attacks are the latest in a series of strikes carried out by Türkiye since nine of its soldiers were killed in clashes with Kurdistan Workers Party militants in northern Iraq on Friday.
The Turkish Ministry of Defense said late on Monday that the recent attacks hit targets in northern Syria, and northern Iraq.
The Turkish Ministry of Defense said in a statement, accompanied by a photo of Turkish warplanes, “23 targets were destroyed, including caves, shelters, tunnels, ammunition stores, supply materials, and facilities used by the terrorist organization”.
The Turkish Ministry of Defense added that they neutralized many militants, a term that usually means she had killed them.
Iranian official media reported late on Monday that the Iraqi Kurdistan region was the scene of an attack launched by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard on what it said was Israel’s spy headquarters there.
The Revolutionary Guard said on Tuesday that it carried out the attack, along with another attack in Syria, in defense of its sovereignty and security and to defeat terrorism.
The PKK, designated a terrorist group by Türkiye, the United States and the European Union, took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984.
More than 40,000 people were killed during the insurgency.
The conflict continued for a long time in the rural areas of southeastern Türkiye, but is now concentrated in the mountains of the Iraqi Kurdistan region, where PKK militants are stationed.
Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya also wrote on X that anti-terrorism police arrested 165 people in operations targeting the PKK in 28 Turkish provinces.
The operations targeted people believed to be members of the party or to have provided assistance to it or spread what the minister described as PKK lies.
Turkish Defense Minister Yaşar Güler told members of Parliament during a debate on the recent attacks in northern Iraq that since 2019, Türkiye has established a buffer zone 15 to 30 kilometers deep along its border with Iraq as part of cross-border operations called “The Claw”.
Güler added, “With Operation Lock the Claw that began in 2022, our borders with Iraq have become completely safe and the security of our borders is guaranteed… If we weren’t there, terrorist attacks on our borders would have continued”.
Güler added that Türkiye paved 620 kilometers of roads in the areas of Operation “The Claw” and that Turkish forces neutralized 1,689 militants from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party in the area of operations since 2019.
Official Turkish media and other sources said on Monday that Ankara carried out a wave of air strikes on electricity and oil infrastructure in Kurdish-controlled northeastern Syria, causing several power stations to stop working.
Türkiye is carrying out a series of military raids and bombing campaigns in Syria against the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, which it considers a wing of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party.
The Turkish authorities said yesterday, Monday, that the police arrested 18 people on charges of praising terrorism after the killing of Turkish soldiers on Friday, and also neutralized a high-ranking member of the PKK in northern Iraq.
