The Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) have eliminated a total of 12 PKK/YPG terrorists in airstrikes on terror targets in northern Iraq and northern Syria, the Defense Ministry said Tuesday.
"The airstrikes that took place in northern Iraq's Matina region on Nov. 28-29 eliminated five PKK terrorists," the ministry said in a statement, vowing to continue operations until "terrorism is rooted out."
Separately, the ministry said seven more PKK/YPG terrorists were eliminated in northern Iraq and Syria where the PKK operates its local offshoot, the YPG.
The TSK and the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) have stepped up operations against terrorist groups abroad in recent years. Counterterrorism operations largely target PKK and its affiliates. They concentrate on northern parts of Türkiye's neighbors Syria and Iraq, where the terrorist group exploits a security vacuum to operate freely.
Turkish security forces generally carry out airstrikes, employing drones, but occasionally, they bring terrorism suspects alive.
The PKK, which has massacred over 40,000 people in Türkiye in a four-decadelong terror campaign, is not designated a terrorist organization in Iraq but is banned from launching operations against Türkiye from Iraqi territory.
PKK violence was initially raging in rural regions of southeastern Türkiye, but the terrorists have moved a large chunk of operations to a stronghold in the Qandil Mountains in northern Iraq after successive Turkish operations.
The PKK also occupies Sinjar, Makhmour and has a foothold in Sulaymaniyah, which sits in northern Iraq’s semiautonomous north controlled by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), where the central Iraqi government has little influence.
Ankara Launched Operation Claw-Lock in April 2022 to target PKK hideouts in Iraq’s northern Metina, Zap and Avasin-Basyan regions near the Turkish border. It was preceded by two operations – Claw-Tiger and Claw-Eagle – launched in 2020.
Yaşar Güler last month said the "security loops" in northern Iraq were closed, without elaborating, but indicating that the Claw-Lock operation was concluded.
Türkiye has long been stressing that it will not tolerate terrorist threats against its national security and has called on Iraqi officials to take the necessary steps to eliminate the terrorist group.
Until recently, Iraq has said the operations violate its sovereignty, but Ankara says it is protecting its borders where it intends to establish a 30-40 kilometer (19-25 mile) security corridor.
In August, the neighbors agreed to military cooperation, namely joint training and operation centers, against the terrorists, months after Baghdad declared the PKK a banned organization.
Türkiye, however, wants Iraq to recognize the PKK as a terrorist group fully.
The terrorists most recently launched an attack on the Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) headquarters in Ankara, which killed five people and injured 22 others on Oct. 23.