Turkish security forces have destroyed caves and bunkers belonging to the PKK terrorist group in nationwide operations, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced Tuesday.
As part of the ongoing Operation Heroes, which was launched in retaliation to a PKK attack in Ankara earlier this month, a total of 4,731 teams consisting of 61,500 gendarmerie officers raided rural terrorist hideouts in 28 provinces, including eastern Hakkari, Siirt, Şırnak, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kars and Iğdır, Yerlikaya informed via X, formerly Twitter.
They found and destroyed a total of 11 large caves and bunkers the PKK terrorists were preparing for winter, the minister said.
Additionally, 37 kilograms (82 pounds) of explosives, along with bomb equipment and 12 mines meant for routes frequented by Turkish police, gendarmerie and soldiers, were seized. Some 27 infantry rifles, one sniper rifle, 12 handguns, 17 hunting rifles, 10,135 units of ammunition for various weapons, 10 hand grenades, six electric fuses, 171 gas stoves and countless amounts of food, miscellaneous items, medical equipment and organizational documents were also found in these raids.
“Türkiye will continue eradicating terrorist hideouts and working until the last terrorist is eliminated,” Yerlikaya said.
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 as Operation Claw Lock with occasional precision strikes and “retaliation” strikes against terrorists engaging in harassment fire or trying to infiltrate into Türkiye to carry out attacks.
Turkish security forces eliminated six more PKK terrorists in the region near the Turkish border, the National Defense Ministry reported Monday.
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.
