The Defense Ministry on Monday announced that 17 members of the PKK terrorist group were eliminated in an airstrike in Iraq. The strike took place in an Operation Claw-Lock zone, the ministry said in a statement, referring to a region in northern Iraq where the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) have been engaged in counterterrorism operations for some time.
“We will continue fighting for our nation, for the memory of our martyrs, for our homeland. Terrorists cannot escape the end awaiting them,” the statement said.
Türkiye anticipates its field cooperation with Iraq against the PKK will increasingly continue, according to Defense Ministry sources who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity last Thursday.
“Coordinated efforts with the Iraqi government continue in line with decisions made during President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s last visit to Iraq,” sources said, citing Baghdad’s recent decisions to ban the group from operating in the country and instructing all state institutions to refer to the PKK as a banned group in official correspondence. It also set up two military bases in the Zakho region in April, which borders southern Türkiye. Türkiye welcomes the declaration of the PKK as a banned group, but it expects Iraq to recognize it as an entire terrorist organization, ministry sources said. “It’s also important for us that three organizations linked to the PKK were closed.”
The terrorist group has been responsible for the deaths of over 40,000 people, including women, children and infants, since it launched a campaign of violence in Türkiye in the 1980s.
Since Turkish operations have driven its domestic presence to near extinction, the PKK has moved a large chunk of its operations to northern Iraq, including a stronghold in the Qandil Mountains, located roughly 40 kilometers (25 miles) southeast of the Turkish border in Irbil.
It has a foothold in northern Iraq's semiautonomous north, which is controlled by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), where the central Iraqi government has little influence.
The PKK has also stepped up its attacks against Iraqi targets recently. Baghdad announced last month that PKK members were behind a string of arsons in the country, including those concentrated in areas controlled by the KRG.
Türkiye's cross-border operations into northern Iraq have been a source of tension with its southeastern neighbor for years. Ankara has asked Iraq for more cooperation in combating the PKK.
Since the start of the year, Ankara has hinted at a final summer offensive against the PKK in both northern Iraq and Syria, where the PKK operates with its local offshoot, the YPG.
PKK/YPG, meanwhile, engaged in clashes with the regime forces in Syria’s Deir el-Zour on Monday. Local sources told Anadolu Agency (AA) that regime forces and pro-Iranian groups fought the PKK/YPG throughout Sunday night in Deir el-Zour’s southeast, where a river separates areas controlled by each other. Regime forces also launched attacks in four districts occupied by the terrorist group in the west of the Euphrates, while PKK responded with an attack on Muhasan, a town controlled by the regime forces. Local sources say clashes displaced dozens of families living in affected areas.
The terrorist group has also engaged in clashes with Arab tribes in parts of Deir el-Zour since last week. In the latest instance of clashes on Sunday, five civilians were injured in the clashes.
