Turkish airstrikes have eliminated a total of 12 PKK/YPG terrorists in northern Iraq and Syria, the Defense Ministry announced Friday.
Four PKK terrorists were eliminated in the Haftanin region of Iraq and eight others were eliminated in the Tell Rifaat region of Syria, the ministry said.
“Neither northern Iraq nor northern Syria is safe for terrorists,” it added.
Ankara has ramped up its cross-border operations in recent months against the PKK and its Syrian offshoot, the YPG, eliminating in total 1,588 terrorists since the start of 2024 alone.
The PKK is known for using northern Iraq, near the Turkish border, as a hideout to plot terrorist attacks and launch attacks both on nearby Türkiye and locals in northern Syria.
The group, which has massacred over 40,000 people in Türkiye in a four-decadelong terror campaign, is not designated a terrorist organization in Iraq but is banned from launching operations against Türkiye from Iraqi territory.
Since Turkish operations have driven its domestic presence to near extinction, the PKK has moved a large chunk of its operations to northern Iraq.
Ankara maintains dozens of military bases there, and it regularly launches operations against the PKK, which uses a stronghold in the Qandil Mountains, located roughly 40 kilometers (25 miles) southeast of the Turkish border in Irbil.
The PKK also occupies Sinjar, Makhmour and has a foothold in Sulaymaniyah, which sits in northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous north controlled by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), where the central Iraqi government has little influence.
In Syria, it seized control of oil-rich regions of northeastern provinces close to the Turkish border in 2015, with the help of U.S., who calls the group its ally in the fight against Daesh.
Since the start of the year, Ankara has hinted at a final summer offensive against the PKK in both northern Iraq and Syria.
Defense Minister Yaşar Güler said that the ongoing Operation Claw-Lock, launched in April 2022, would be completed before the winter to sever the ties between Syria and Qandil.
Türkiye aims to wipe out the PKK from its borders and create a 30-40 kilometers deep security corridor along the Iraqi and Syrian borders.
Both the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) and the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) have since ramped up strikes on the “terror corridor” in the region, indicating a wider offensive may already be underway.
Unconfirmed reports say the Turkish army is already advancing along a road connecting Iraq to Syria and has occasionally carried out operations since last month.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan recently renewed Türkiye’s pledge to eradicate the PKK in the region, saying, “Counterterrorism is not a simple matter of numbers, and you cannot be sure about it. But our fight will continue to the very end. Their end is near. We will end this issue. We are retaliating and they are desperate, seeking support. Yet, they will fail. Those caves cannot protect them.”
