Turkey’s military conducted air strikes in northern Iraq, eliminating 13 militants affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), according to an official statement from the defence ministry on Friday. The strikes specifically targeted the Hakurk region of northern Iraq and areas associated with Turkey’s ongoing “Claw-Lock Operation.”
The PKK, recognised as a terrorist organisation by the European Union (EU), US, and Turkey, has been engaged in conflict with the Turkish state since 1984, resulting in over 40,000 casualties. The defence ministry, in a message posted on the social messaging platform X, asserted that their operations will persist until the region is entirely free of terrorist presence.
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“Our operations will continue with determination until there is not a single terrorist left in the region,” it said.
Ankara has a history of carrying out cross-border air strikes and military operations against the PKK, which maintains bases in the mountainous terrain of northern Iraq. The recent escalation in attacks on Kurdish militants in Syria and Iraq comes in response to a bombing near government buildings in Ankara on October 1, prompting Turkey to intensify efforts to neutralise PKK threats