The Turkish military eliminated four PKK/YPG terrorists in northern Syria, the Defense Ministry said Monday.

The terrorists were targeted in the Operation Euphrates Shield zone in northern Syria, the ministry said.

Ankara has launched a trio of successful anti-terror operations since 2016 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). Nearby PKK/YPG forces have tried to target or harass Turkish troops and terrorize locals.

The PKK took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984 and is designated a terrorist organization by Ankara, as well as the United States and the European Union.

After losing significant territory and countless terrorists, the group ceded to its stronghold in the Qandil Mountains in northern Iraq near the Turkish border while its Syrian branch took advantage of a power vacuum created by the Syrian civil war since 2011 and invaded several resource-rich provinces with the help of the U.S.

Washington calls the PKK/YPG its ally under the pretext of driving out Daesh, which is a source of strain with its NATO ally Ankara, who says it’s "senseless" to use one terrorist group to fight another.

In the past decade, PKK/YPG terrorists forced many locals to migrate, bringing in their militants to change the regional demographic, seizing regional oil wells – Syria’s largest – to smuggle oil and generate revenue for its activities.

Turkish intelligence and armed forces often carry out airstrikes in Iraqi and Syrian territories on terrorist targets, with Ankara reiterating that these are meant to counter PKK/YPG efforts to establish a terror corridor along Turkish borders and not an incursion into its neighbors’ territorial integrity.