Turkey launches air attacks against Kurdish rebels in Iraq and Syria | Conflict News

Defence ministry says 29 areas hit after assault on Turkish army base in Iraq killed 9 Turkish troopers.

Turkey has bombed a number of areas allegedly linked to Kurdish teams in Syria and northern Iraq in retaliation for the deaths of 9 Turkish troopers in Iraq, the defence ministry stated.

The raids on Saturday got here in the future after an assault on a Turkish army base in Iraq resulted within the troopers’ deaths.

The ministry stated the assaults focused 29 areas – together with “caves, bunkers, shelters and oil installations” belonging to the outlawed Kurdistan Employees’ Celebration (PKK) and the Folks’s Safety Models (YPG), a Syrian Kurdish group which has been a central factor within the United States-allied coalition in opposition to ISIS (ISIL).

Turkey ceaselessly carries out attacks in opposition to areas in Syria and Iraq that it suspects to be related to the PKK.

The Kurdish separatist group, which is banned in Turkey, is taken into account a “terror” organisation by Turkey, the European Union and america.

The defence ministry stated fighter jets struck targets in Metina, Hakurk, Gara and Qandil in northern Iraq, however didn’t specify which areas in Syria. It stated the intention was “to eradicate terrorist assaults in opposition to our folks and safety forces … and to make sure our border safety”.

The assertion stated that “many” armed fighters had been “neutralised” within the assaults, a time period Turkey makes use of to check with killed or captured fighters.

On Friday night time, attackers tried to infiltrate a army base in northern Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish area, killing 5 troopers. One other 4 died later of important accidents. The ministry stated 15 fighters had been additionally killed.

There was no fast remark from the PKK, the federal government in Baghdad or the administration within the area.

Turkey launched Operation Claw-Lock in northern Iraq in April 2022, throughout which it established a number of bases within the Duhok governorate. Iraq has repeatedly protested in opposition to the presence of Turkish troops and referred to as for his or her withdrawal.

“We’ll struggle to the tip in opposition to the PKK terrorist organisation inside and out of doors our borders,” Turkey’s overseas minister Hakan Fidan posted on X.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was to carry a safety assembly in Istanbul afterward Saturday, stated his communications director Fahrettin Altun.

Additionally on Saturday, 113 folks had been arrested for suspected hyperlinks with the PKK in nationwide raids, inside minister Ali Yerlikaya stated on X.

Persevering with preventing

Three weeks in the past, PKK-affiliated fighters tried to interrupt into a Turkish base in northern Iraq, in keeping with Turkish officers, killing six troopers. The next day, six extra Turkish troopers had been killed in clashes.

Turkey retaliated by launching assaults in opposition to websites that officers stated had been related to the PKK in Iraq and Syria. Defence minister Yasar Guler stated on the time that dozens of Kurdish fighters had been killed in air strikes and land assaults.

It was not instantly clear if Friday night time’s assault and the one three weeks earlier focused the identical base.

Greater than 40,000 folks have been killed for the reason that begin of the battle between the PKK – which maintains bases in northern Iraq – and the Turkish state since 1984.

Turkey and the US, nonetheless, disagree on the standing of the Syrian Kurdish teams.