Turkish security forces have apprehended 27 more suspects from the PKK terrorist group, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said Wednesday.
As part of ongoing Operation Heroes, which was launched in retaliation to a PKK attack in Ankara earlier this month, Turkish police captured the suspected terrorists who were preparing for various attacks in eight provinces, Yerlikaya informed via X, formerly Twitter.
Türkiye has intensified its strikes on the PKK both at home and in Iraq and Syria since the group claimed a suicide attack outside the Turkish National Police headquarters in the capital in which one PKK terrorist blew himself up, and another would-be bomber was killed in a shootout with police resulting in two police officers being wounded.
Since Oct. 1, Turkish forces have eliminated over 150 PKK terrorists and dozens of facilities and hideouts in northern Syria and Iraq. Operation Heroes saw thousands of fugitive suspects captured across Türkiye.
Following the attack, the first major assault by the PKK in a big city after the Istiklal Street attack in Istanbul, which claimed six lives last year, Türkiye signaled that it may launch a new cross-border offensive against the terrorist group.
The PKK controls swathes of land in Syria’s north under its U.S.-backed Syrian wing, the YPG. In Iraq’s mountainous north, the terrorist group’s leadership maintains hideouts.
The PKK is designated a terrorist group by Türkiye, the U.S., Britain and the European Union. It launched a campaign of violence in southeastern Türkiye in 1984, and over 40,000 people were killed as a result.
Türkiye renewed its counterterrorism campaign in the past decade after a brief lull. In Iraq, it launched the Claw Sword operation in 2022 to eliminate terrorists hiding in the mountainous regions of northern Iraq. The offensive continues with occasional precision strikes and “retaliation” strikes against terrorists engaging in harassment fire or trying to infiltrate into Türkiye to carry out attacks.
Similarly, the Turkish army regularly responds to attacks from Syria’s north, partly controlled by the YPG. In 2017, it launched Operation Euphrates Shield in coordination with the Syrian opposition forces in Syria’s north. It cleared out PKK terrorists in a region between Afrin and Manbij, further driving PKK/YPG to Syria’s northeast. One year later, it conducted Operation Olive Branch in another push against the terrorist group.
Finally, in 2019, Operation Peace Spring was launched to create a “safe zone” near the Turkish-Syrian border, where terrorists often target Turkish towns on the other side of the border. Increased production of unmanned aerial vehicles and bolstered capacity of a professional army helped Türkiye achieve its counterterrorism targets. At the same time, the PKK/YPG in Syria enjoys support from the U.S. in the form of training and military equipment.
