Security forces destroyed a shelter used by PKK terrorists in southeastern Türkiye’s Şırnak province, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced Monday.
Operation “Gürz-12,” conducted jointly by gendarmerie special forces, intelligence officers and local police targeted PKK hideouts in Şırnak’s Cudi Mountain and destroyed a cave used as an ammunition depot, Yelrikaya said on X.
With no shelter in urban locations, the PKK takes advantage of mountainous territories in Türkiye’s southeast where its members spend winter in remote caves.
Authorities seized 753 grenades, a thousand grenade detonators, 2,000 electric detonates, 11 AK-47 rifles, five Dragunov sniper rifles, three RPG-7 rocket launchers, two machine guns, a 60 mm mortar, 2 kilograms (4.41 pounds) of explosives and numerous types of supplies during the search.
“Terrorists’ hideout prepared to be used as a logistics base for their attacks has been thoroughly destroyed,” Yerlikaya said.
Turkish security forces regularly conduct counterterrorism operations in the eastern and southeastern provinces of Türkiye, where the PKK has attempted to establish a stronghold in its four-decade campaign of terror.
The PKK took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984 to achieve a so-called Kurdish self-rule in southeastern regions and is designated a terrorist organization by Ankara, as well as the United States and the European Union.
Increasing operations in recent years have driven the PKK’s domestic presence to near extinction and the terrorist group has moved a large chunk of its operation to northern Iraq, including a stronghold in the Qandil Mountains, which sits roughly 40 kilometers (25 miles) southeast of the Turkish border in Irbil.
Türkiye has, over the past 25 years, operated several dozen military bases in northern Iraq in its war against the PKK and has been conducting airstrikes as part of “Claw” operations since 2022 to demolish terrorist lairs and prevent the formation of a terror corridor along its borders.
