Turkish security forces, and the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) eliminated at least 57 PKK terrorists, including a senior militant who recruited terrorists from European countries, in response to the brutal terrorist attack that martyred nine Turkish soldiers on Friday.
Intelligence units eliminated terrorist Renas Raperin, code-named Faik Aydın, who was hiding near the Turkish border. He was in the Sulaymaniyah region in Iraq since 2015 and was blackmailing and forcing people to support the PKK terrorist group.
Aydın also actively participated in the terrorist PKK’s youth branch in Europe and recruited militants in Europe, particularly in France.
In August 2015, he went to Iraq and joined the terrorist group’s armed branch and received training and he also provided ideological training to new recruits.
Meanwhile, the Defense Ministry announced that 57 PKK terrorists were killed in northern Iraq and Syria.
"Following the attack in the Operation Claw-Lock region, where our heroic comrades were martyred, terrorist targets in the north of Iraq and Syria were effectively hit by our ground fire support vehicles as well as air operations," the ministry said on X.
"According to initial estimates, the number of terrorists neutralized in northern Iraq has increased to 57," the statement added.
Turkish authorities use the term "neutralize" to imply the terrorists in question surrendered or were killed or captured.
A later statement, released following a security meeting chaired by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, noted that a total of 36 terrorists were killed in northern Iraq.
Nine Turkish soldiers were killed in action in a PKK terror attack in northern Iraq on Friday.
PKK terrorists often hide out in northern Iraq to plot cross-border attacks in Türkiye. The group also has a Syrian branch, known as the YPG.
Türkiye launched Operation Claw-Lock in April 2022 to target the PKK terror 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.