The Turkish military seized a huge cache of weapons and ammunition during an anti-terror operation in northern Iraq, the Turkish National Defense Ministry said on Saturday.
"Our heroic commandos captured numerous arms and ammunition in a depot belonging to the PKK terrorist organization," said a ministry statement on Operation Claw-Tiger, one of its anti-terror operations in the region.
Among seized items were 63 AK-47 rifles, a sniper rifle, two shotguns, 50 rocket launcher ammunition, 1,000 anti-aircraft gun ammunition, 300 chargers for AK-47 rifles, 50 grenades and 25 kilograms (55 pounds) of dynamite.
The operation is continuing, it added.
Operation Claw-Tiger was launched a few days after Operation Claw-Eagle, which was launched in order to ensure the security of the Turkish people and the country's borders by eliminating the PKK and other terrorist organizations that have been stepping up their harassment and attack attempts against the police and military bases.
The PKK terrorist group managed to establish a foothold in Sinjar in mid-2014, on the pretext that it was protecting the local Yazidi community from Daesh. Since then, the PKK has reportedly established a new base in Sinjar for its logistical and command-and-control activities.
Turkey has long been stressing that it will not tolerate terror threats posed against its national security and has called on Iraqi officials to take the necessary steps to eliminate the terrorist group. Ankara previously noted that if the expected steps are not taken, it would not shy away from targeting terror threats, particularly in Sinjar.
The Turkish Armed Forces regularly conduct cross-border operations in northern Iraq, a region where PKK terrorists have hideouts and bases from which to carry out attacks in Turkey. Iraq's Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) also previously called the PKK's presence in Sinjar unacceptable and urged the militants to leave the area.
In addition to cross-border operations, Turkish security forces conduct domestic operations in the country's eastern and southeastern regions where the PKK conducts many of its activities.
Most recently, security forces killed a wanted PKK terrorist in eastern Turkey, the Interior Ministry said on Saturday.
Yahya Atmaca, code-named Savaş Fırat, was among three terrorists killed in the Tunceli province, the ministry said.
The terrorist, who was targeted in an operation in the Ovacık district, was on the Interior Ministry's wanted list, which is divided into five color-coded categories, with red as the most wanted, followed by blue, green, orange and gray.
In its more than 40-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and European Union, has been responsible for the deaths of nearly 40,000 people, including women, children and infants.
