The Ministry of National Defense announced on Sunday that 16 members of the terrorist group PKK were eliminated in operations abroad. Eleven terrorists were eliminated in Iraq and five others in Syria’s north, a statement by the ministry said.

The ministry stated that operations targeted terrorists in the Iraqi regions of Asos, Hakurk and Gara, as well as a region in Syria where the Turkish army previously conducted Operation Euphrates Shield to clear the area from terrorists.

The PKK is known for using northern Iraq, near the Turkish border, as a hideout to plot terrorist attacks and for launching attacks both on nearby Türkiye and locals in the north of Syria.

Since 2016, Ankara has also launched a trio of successful anti-terror operations across its border in northern Syria to prevent the formation of a terror corridor and enable the peaceful settlement of residents: Euphrates Shield (2016), Olive Branch (2018) and Peace Spring (2019).

In its nearly 40-year terror campaign against Türkiye, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the U.S. and the EU – has been responsible for the deaths of more than 40,000 people, including women, children and infants. The YPG is the PKK's Syrian offshoot.

Last week, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan renewed Türkiye’s pledge to eradicate the PKK as he answered a question on an all-out summer offensive in Iraq he had hinted at earlier. "They are going to pay the price. Counterterrorism is not a simple matter of numbers, and you cannot be sure about it. But our fight will continue to the very end. Their end is near. We will end this issue. We are retaliating, and they are desperate and seeking support. Yet, they will fail. Our soldiers, police and intelligence are in the field and breathing down their necks. Those caves cannot protect them," he said, referring to the hideouts of the PKK leadership.

Inside Türkiye, authorities also ramped up measures against PKK amid a seemingly rising propaganda by the terrorist group, whose presence in the country has significantly reduced thanks to successive counterterrorism operations, particularly in the southeast, where it thrived once. Over the past few days, more than a dozen suspects who openly carried out pro-PKK propaganda online and in public were detained. One video where a group of PKK supporters dancing to a song praising the group has stirred up outrage in the country harmed by PKK terrorism for decades. It was followed by more videos of a similar theme. Security forces launched a string of nationwide operations to detain people in videos celebrating the PKK while an opposition politician proposed annulling the citizenship of members of the PKK amid outrage.