The Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) have taken out nearly 100 members of the PKK terror group last month, according to official figures released Wednesday.
As part of domestic security operations, a total of 80 terrorists, four of whom were so-called high-ranking officials, were eliminated across the country, the Interior Ministry informed.
Of the four senior officials, one was on the red wanted list while one was grey-listed, another green, and the fourth was a non-listed fugitive.
The ministry also revealed a total of 50 terrorists were eliminated in some 7,393 wide-scale domestic operations carried out across 26 regions from Oct. 1, 2022, until April 5.
The National Defense Ministry too announced the elimination of five PKK/YPG terrorists in northern regions of neighboring Syria and Iraq this week.
Three members of the PKK preparing for an attack in the Operation Peace Spring region in northern Syria were successfully taken out, the ministry said early Wednesday, after confirming on Tuesday the death of two other PKK members attempting to infiltrate Iraq’s Gara region.
“Turkish Armed Forces determinedly continue eliminating terrorists before they can achieve their goals,” the ministry said.
Gara sits between Türkiye and Iraq’s Mosul where the TSK notably targeted PKK positions in the mountainous terrain, close to the Syrian border, to primarily rescue 12 Turkish citizens who were held captive by the terrorists in a weeklong offensive dubbed Operation Claw-Eagle-2 in February 2021.
The PKK is responsible for over 40,000 civilian and security personnel deaths in Türkiye during an almost four-decadelong campaign of terror and Türkiye has been conducting military operations in northern Iraq since 2019, with both ground and air forces, to battle the organization.
Türkiye has long been stressing that it will not tolerate terrorist threats posed against its national security and has called on Iraqi officials to take necessary steps to eliminate the terrorist group.
Ankara previously noted that if the expected steps were not taken, it would not shy away from targeting terrorist threats.
In the last few years, the operations intensifying in northern Iraq have demolished terrorist lairs in Metina, Avashin-Basyan, Zap and Gara. After eradicating the group's influence in these regions, Türkiye also aims to clear Qandil, Sinjar and Makhmour.
Its military involvement in northern Iraq dates back over two decades, separately from its operations against the PKK, included also the war against the Daesh terrorist group, which controlled much of the area, in 2014 and 2015, when Ankara was an ally in the U.S.-led anti-Daesh campaign.
The TSK regularly conducts cross-border operations in northeastern Syria as well where PKK terrorists have controlled much of the region since the forces of Syrian regime leader Bashar Assad withdrew in 2012.
Operation Euphrates Shield was launched in 2016, Ankara’s first cross-border operation in the region, as part of which Turkish forces have so far decimated thousands of both PKK/YPG and Daesh elements.
Euphrates Shield was followed by Olive Branch in 2018 and Peace Spring in 2019, toward the same purpose of quashing the terror corridor the groups have been trying to establish alongside Türkiye’s southern border, bringing peace to the region and facilitating the safe return of displaced locals.
Most recently in November 2022, Ankara kicked off Operation Claw-Sword, another cross-border aerial campaign, to target the PKK/YPG in response to a terrorist attack in Istanbul’s bustling Istiklal Street on Nov. 13 that left six civilians dead and 81 injured.
Türkiye increased the number of its counterterrorism operations to 124 and destroyed nearly 9,800 terrorist hideouts throughout 2022.
The number of PKK/YPG terrorists within Turkish borders too decreased to below 120 in 2022, the ministry informed, as a total of 87 high-ranking figures of the terrorist groups were neutralized.
