ANKARA, Turkey (AP) – Turkey’s Defense Ministry announced new targets Tuesday against Kurdish militants in neighboring Iraq, hours after an attack in the region killed one Turkish soldier and wounded four others. It was announced that an airstrike had been carried out.
Turkey has launched frequent attacks against targets in Syria and Iraq believed to be affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an outlawed Kurdish separatist group that has waged an insurgency against Turkey since the 1980s. ing.
President Erdogan vows to expand military operations against Kurdish forces in Syria and Iraq
Turkish jets on Tuesday attacked suspected PKK strongholds in the Metina, Zap, Hakluk, Gala and Qandil regions of northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region, the ministry said in a statement. The jets reportedly destroyed 27 PKK targets, including caves, bunkers and shelters. There was no immediate comment from the PKK.
Turkey has carried out a series of airstrikes targeting Kurdish militants based in Iraq.
“We have not left the blood of our martyrs on the ground,” the ministry said, suggesting the airstrike was in retaliation for an attack that killed one Turkish soldier and injured four others.
Last week, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan held high-level talks with Fuad Hussein and other Iraqi officials to discuss the presence of the PKK in Iraq and measures to be taken against the group.
In a joint statement released by the two countries, the two countries “underlined that the PKK organization is a security threat to both Turkey and Iraq” and said the presence of the PKK in Iraq “violates the Iraqi constitution.”
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Although the PKK is not designated as a terrorist organization in Iraq, it is prohibited from launching operations against Turkey from Iraqi territory. Nevertheless, it is based in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, where Iraq’s central government has no significant influence.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is scheduled to visit Iraq next month, said his country was determined to end the PKK presence in Iraq this summer and warned against the possibility of a large-scale military attack on the region. suggested sex.
