Turkish security forces eliminated 26 PKK terrorists in the northern regions of Iraq and Syria over the past two days, the Ministry of National Defense announced Sunday, with 10 PKK terrorists in northern Iraq as the latest targets.

In the Operation Claw-Lock area in northern Iraq, 10 PKK terrorists were "neutralized" in an air operation, the ministry said in a statement on X. Turkish authorities use the term "neutralize" to imply the terrorists in question surrendered, were killed or captured.

"Our heroic Turkish Armed Forces continue to demolish terrorist hideouts with their steel claws," it added. The ministry also expressed Türkiye’s determination to eliminate terrorists.

Türkiye launched Operation Claw-Lock in April 2022 to target the PKK terrorist organization's hideouts in Iraq's northern Metina, Zap and Avasin-Basyan regions near the Turkish border. It was preceded by Operations Claw-Tiger and Claw-Eagle launched in 2020 to root out terrorists hiding out in northern Iraq and plotting cross-border attacks in Türkiye.

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

On Saturday, the ministry announced that nine terrorists were eliminated in Iraq's Gara region. On Sunday, it said seven PKK members were eliminated in Syria's north in another operation.

Last Thursday, authorities said security forces eliminated as many as 114 terrorists in cross-border operations in the north of Iraq and Syria weeks after a PKK attack that killed nine soldiers and injured four others in the Metina district near the Turkish border of Iraq.

A total of 2,396 terrorists have been "neutralized" in Iraq and northern Syria since Jan. 1, 2023, a ministry official told reporters in the capital, Ankara.

Since Turkish operations have driven its domestic presence to near extinction, the PKK has moved a large chunk of its operations to northern Iraq. Ankara maintains dozens of military bases there and regularly launches operations against the PKK, which operates a stronghold in the Qandil Mountains, located roughly 40 kilometers (25 miles) southeast of the Turkish border in Irbil province, although the area is under de jure control of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

Both the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) and the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) regularly conduct cross-border operations in these regions, particularly in northern Iraq.

Türkiye also battles the PKK's Syrian offshoot, the YPG, which has occupied several resource-rich provinces in northern Syria after taking advantage of a power vacuum created by the civil war. Since Jan. 1, 2023, the terrorist group carried out 560 attacks falling under Türkiye's counterterrorism operations in Syria and 1,605 terrorists have been "neutralized," a Defense Ministry official stated last Thursday.

Following a Cabinet meeting last week, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan reiterated Türkiye's determination to protect its borders and ensure border security by eliminating all terrorist threats from its southern neighbors. "Through successful cross-border operations, Türkiye clearly, unequivocally showed it will not allow any surgical attacks on its territory," President Erdoğan told reporters.

Attempts to fuel and strengthen the PKK by providing it with weapons, ammunition, training and shelters have gained momentum, he added. "Our cross-border operations have also foiled plots aimed at dragging Türkiye into internal turmoil through a wave of irregular migration," he added.

"Since promises made to us are not being fulfilled, no one can object to Türkiye taking the necessary measures for its own security," Erdoğan stressed, referring to previous pledges to establish a buffer zone along its southern border.

The PKK/YPG took advantage of a power vacuum created by the Syrian civil war and invaded several Syrian provinces, including Deir el-Zour, in 2015 with the help of Washington. The terrorists forced many locals to migrate, bringing their militants to change the regional demographic. Deir el-Zour is a resource-rich region bordering Iraq, bisected by the Euphrates River and home to dozens of tribal communities. The PKK/YPG has seized the region's oil wells – Syria's largest – and smuggles oil to the Syrian regime despite U.S. sanctions, to generate revenue for its activities.

In October 2019, when Türkiye launched Operation Peace Spring across its southern border against the PKK/YPG, the U.S. prioritized establishing bases around oil fields as it evacuated its bases in the operation zone. U.S. forces, continuing their support for the terrorist group, currently have a presence in numerous bases and military points in other areas like Hassakeh and Raqqa, also under the group’s occupation. The U.S. claims that it uses YPG forces as allies in the fight against Daesh, to which Ankara has long objected on the grounds that using one terrorist group to fight another "makes no sense." Türkiye is also fiercely opposed to the U.S. training and supporting with arms and other supplies a terrorist group that poses a threat to its borders as well as local residents of northern Syria, who have suffered under terrorist oppression and attacks.