ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey carried out a brand new spherical of airstrikes focusing on Kurdish militants in neighboring Iraq on Tuesday, Turkey’s protection ministry stated, hours after a Turkish soldier was killed and 4 others have been wounded in an assault within the area.
Turkey usually launches strikes towards targets in Syria and Iraq it believes to be affiliated with the Kurdistan Employees’ Get together, or PKK, a banned Kurdish separatist group that has waged an insurgency towards Turkey for the reason that Nineteen Eighties.
On Tuesday, the Turkish warplanes struck suspected PKK positions within the Metina, Zap, Hakurk, Gara and Qandil areas in northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish area, in keeping with a ministry assertion. The jets reportedly destroyed 27 PKK targets, together with caves, bunkers, and shelters. There was no speedy remark from the PKK.
“We’ve not left the blood of any of our martyrs on the bottom,” the ministry stated, suggesting that the airstrikes have been in retaliation to the assault that killed the Turkish soldier and wounded 4 others.
Final week, Turkish International Minister Hakan Fidan held high-level conferences along with his counterpart Fuad Hussein and different Iraqi officers to debate the PKK’s presence in Iraq and measures to be taken towards the group.
A joint assertion issued by the 2 nations stated each side had “confused that the PKK group represents a safety risk to each Turkey and Iraq” and that its presence in Iraq “represents a violation of the Iraqi structure.”
The PKK isn’t designated a terrorist group in Iraq, however is banned from launching operations towards Turkey from Iraqi territory. It however has a foothold in northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish area, the place the central Iraqi authorities doesn’t have a lot affect.
The Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is predicted to go to Iraq subsequent month, has stated that his nation is set to finish PKK’s presence in Iraq this summer time, suggesting a potential large-scale navy offensive into the area.
