Security forces have eliminated six PKK terrorists in northern Iraq and captured some 14 suspects linked to the terrorist group in southern Türkiye, authorities said Monday.
Turkish airstrikes targeted PKK hideouts in northern Iraq’s Gara and Metina regions, the Defense Ministry said.
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.
In domestic raids, security forces detained 14 suspects in the southern Mersin province.
Police said the suspects were charged with attending pro-PKK meetings, trying to recruit people on social media for the group and spreading terrorist propaganda.
The PKK took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984 to achieve a so-called Kurdish self-rule in southeastern regions and is designated a terrorist organization by Ankara, as well as the United States and the European Union.
Their armed attacks began in August 1984 in the southeastern Siirt and Hakkari provinces. In its attempts to seize land in the region by spreading fear, the PKK did not hesitate to kill those who opposed the terrorist group.
Throughout the 1990s, its massacre peaked as the group didn’t discriminate between security forces and civilians in rural raids or urban attacks.
Security forces regularly conduct counterterrorism operations across the country, focusing on the eastern and southeastern provinces, where the PKK has attempted to establish a stronghold in its four-decade campaign of terror. Terrorists from the PKK and its branches, such as its Syrian wing, the YPG, and Daesh, rely on a network of members and supporters in Türkiye.
But increasing operations in recent years have driven the PKK’s domestic presence to near extinction and the terrorist group has moved a large chunk of its operation to northern Iraq, including a stronghold in the Qandil Mountains, which sits roughly 40 kilometers (25 miles) southeast of the Turkish border in Irbil.
Türkiye has, over the past 25 years, operated several dozen military bases in northern Iraq in its war against the PKK and has been conducting airstrikes as part of "Claw" operations since 2022 to demolish terrorist lairs and prevent the formation of a terror corridor along its borders to both Iraq and Syria.
Defense Minister Yaşar Güler said recently that the ongoing Operation Claw-Lock, launched in April 2022, would be completed before the winter to sever the ties between Syria and Qandil.
The aim is to wipe out the PKK from the immediate Turkish borders and create an approximately 40-kilometer-deep security corridor along the Iraqi and Syrian borders.
The PKK is not recognized as a terrorist group in Iraq but is banned from launching attacks on Türkiye from Iraqi soil.
Ankara and Baghdad have been at loggerheads over Ankara's cross-border military operations against the PKK in northern Iraq.
Iraq has said the operations are a violation of its sovereignty, but Ankara says they are needed to protect itself.
Baghdad in March outlawed the PKK and agreed in August to military cooperation that will see joint training and command centers against the terrorists, but Ankara wants Iraq to recognize it as a terrorist organization fully.
The PKK relies on support from a party operating in the KRG-controlled region in Iraq as Baghdad and the KRG has tightened measures against the group, including a ban by Baghdad. In Syria, it boasts support from the U.S. under the pretext of fighting against Daesh.