Intensifying operations in northern Iraq and Syria across the Turkish border have eliminated more than 350 terrorists so far in 2024, according to the Defense Ministry.

The Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) eliminated a total of 359 members of terrorist groups like the PKK, its Syrian offshoot YPG, Daesh and the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) in operations, including in Syria and Iraq, since Jan. 1, including 44 in the past week, the ministry’s press representative Rear Adm. Zeki Aktürk told reporters in Ankara during a weekly briefing on Thursday.

"A total of 144 of these terrorists were neutralized in northern Iraq, while 215 were killed in northern Syria," Aktürk said.

Last week’s operations bring the total number of terrorists eliminated in the said regions since Jan. 1, 2023, to 2,585 terrorists.

"Türkiye's crackdown on terrorists will increasingly continue until terrorists disappear from this region," Aktürk said.

He also informed that Turkish authorities have caught a total of 207 PKK terrorists trying to cross the border in the past week and prevented another 2,495 before they could make the crossing.

"Since Jan. 1, we have apprehended a total of 893 people trying to infiltrate our borders and prevented a total of 21,089 crossings," Aktürk said.

Iraq relations

On Defense Minister Yaşar Güler and Chief of General Staff Gen. Metin Gürak’s visit to Iraq this week, Aktürk said the sides discussed recent regional developments, military cooperation, as well as the joint fight against terrorism and the rights and interests of Iraqi Turkmens in the region.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, Güler and Gürak were in Baghdad and Irbil to meet officials, including state leaders, of Iraq and the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), a semiautonomous entity controlling Iraq’s north.

The visit came as Ankara intensified airstrikes on terror targets and hideouts across its border, particularly in Sulaymaniyah after the PKK killed 21 Turkish soldiers in the Metina region.

The PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the United States, Britain and the European Union – has been responsible for over 40,000 civilian and security personnel deaths in Türkiye during an almost four-decadelong campaign of terror.

Since Turkish operations have driven its domestic presence to near extinction, the PKK has moved a large chunk of its operations to northern Iraq and operates a stronghold in the Qandil Mountains, located roughly 40 kilometers (25 miles) southeast of the Turkish border in Irbil province.

The area is under de jure control of the KRG, which is also home to a sizable Iraqi Turkmen population.

Ankara maintains dozens of military bases there, and both its army and the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) regularly conduct operations against the PKK and Daesh.

In the last few years, intensifying strikes in northern Iraq have demolished terrorist lairs in the Metina, Avashin-Basyan, Zap and Gara districts. Baghdad, however, has yet to recognize the PKK as a terrorist group officially, and Turkish strikes remain a prickly issue between the neighbors.

Turkish officials have repeatedly urged Iraq, as well as the KRG, to recognize the PKK as a terrorist group, stressing that the group, which occupies Sinjar, Makhmour, Qandil and Sulaymaniyah, threatens the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iraq.

Ankara has also expressed readiness to collaborate with Baghdad against the PKK and Daesh.

Aktürk on Thursday assured Türkiye "does not covet anyone’s territory" and its "only concern is to ensure the security of our nation, people and borders."

Fighter jets

Turning to claims that there is a petition to block the long-stalled sale of F-16 fighter jets to Türkiye at the U.S. Congress after the Biden administration approved the deal last month, Aktürk said: "The silence at Congress continues and any sort of negativity isn’t expected in this period."

In late January, after a prolonged process that frustrated Ankara, U.S. President Joe Biden's administration finally approved the $23 billion sale of 40 new F-16s, as well as nearly 80 kits after Türkiye formally ratified Sweden's membership in NATO.

The Biden administration had repeatedly supported the sale, but several lawmakers in Congress had tied the sale to Türkiye's approval of Sweden's NATO bid.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan eventually also made Sweden's membership contingent on approving the sale of the new planes.

The U.S. Congress has 15 days to object to the sale, after which it is considered final.