The National Intelligence Agency (MIT) destroyed 50 strategic PKK/YPG terrorist targets in northern Syria, as part of operations launched following terrorist attacks against Turkish troops in northern Iraq, which killed 12 soldiers last week.
Intelligence units targeted the terrorist group’s facilities, which produced their gear, explosives and daily necessities.
Field agents detected the PKK’s military, economic and logistics facilities in the Qamishli, Amouda and Ain al-Arab (Kobani) regions. The terrorists operated these facilities under civilian disguise, security sources said, adding that intelligence units prepared an operation to target these facilities with pinpoint accuracy.
Around 50 targets were destroyed in the operation, sources said.
MIT paid utmost attention to ensure no civilians, civilian infrastructure or residences were harmed during the operation, sources added.
The strategic facilities destroyed in the operation housed several senior PKK terrorists, according to sources, who noted that the operation made a significant contribution to eliminating threats against Türkiye’s border security.
Türkiye has intensified its airstrikes against the PKK in Iraq and northern Syria, where it’s fighting the YPG, the PKK’s U.S.-backed local offshoot, in retaliation for the deaths of 12 Turkish soldiers in Iraq over the weekend.
On Friday, Turkish officials said PKK terrorists attempted to infiltrate a Turkish base in northern Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region. They said six Turkish soldiers were killed in the ensuing firefight. The following day, six more Turkish soldiers were killed in clashes with PKK militants.
In response, Ankara launched strikes on dozens of sites associated with the PKK in Iraq and Syria, where President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has vowed Türkiye would pay “whatever the cost” to prevent the emergence of a “terrorist structure.”
The PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union – is responsible for over 40,000 civilian and security personnel deaths in Türkiye during an almost four-decadelong campaign of terror.
Since Turkish operations have driven its domestic presence to near extinction, the PKK has moved a large chunk of its operations to northern Iraq.
Ankara maintains dozens of military bases there, and it regularly launches operations against the PKK, which holds a stronghold in the Qandil Mountains, located roughly 40 kilometers (25 miles) southeast of the Turkish border in Irbil province. However, the area is under de jure control of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
