Security forces have destroyed some 24 hideouts of the PKK terror group across nine Turkish provinces in ongoing counterterrorism operations, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced Monday.
A task force of some 1,628 security personnel, including gendarmerie special forces, commandos and rangers, raided PKK targets in southern and eastern provinces, from Şırnak to Hatay, Mardin to Hakkari, in an air-backed operation, Yerlikaya said on social media platform X.
They seized 1,820 anti-tank and RPG-7 ammunition, propelling cartridges, as well as dozens of machine guns, handmade explosives and other explosive materials, Yerlikaya informed.
"The terrorists were preparing these hideouts to use as logistics bases during the winter months and to support their activities," the minister noted.
The operation is part of efforts to eliminate the PKK's presence within Turkish borders, in tandem with Turkish airstrikes in Syria and Iraq against the terrorist group's members holed up with Türkiye's neighbors close to its border.
PKK terrorists often hide in northern Iraq to plot cross-border attacks in Türkiye.
Türkiye launched Operation Claw-Lock in April 2022 to target the terrorist PKK's hideouts in Iraq's northern Metina, Zap and Avasin-Basyan regions near the Turkish border.
It was preceded by Operations Claw-Tiger and Claw-Eagle, launched in 2020 to root out terrorists hiding out in northern Iraq.
Separately, the Ministry of National Defense said on Saturday that six more PKK terrorists were eliminated in northern Iraq's Gara region in an airstrike.
In its more than 40-year terror campaign against Türkiye, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union – has been responsible for the deaths of more than 40,000 people, including women, children and infants.
Although its activities are significantly reduced within Turkish territories, the PKK finds shelter in mountainous areas where members hide out in winter and store munitions and survival kits.
Turkish security forces eliminated a total of 9,234 terrorists in 2023, including members of PKK, as well as other groups like Daesh, the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) and leftist organizations.
Following a lull from 2017 onward, Türkiye suffered two bomb attacks in recent years, one that killed six and injured 81 others in Istanbul's Istiklal Street in November 2022 and another in front of the Turkish police headquarters in the capital Ankara, which only injured two officers, in October 2023.
In late December and early January, Türkiye also lost 21 soldiers to two separate PKK attacks on its bases in northern Iraq.
