Türkiye has so far eliminated nearly a thousand members of the PKK terrorist group and its Syrian branch YPG in 2023 and will continue fighting terrorism "until it’s entirely eradicated" at its roots, the Defense Ministry said Thursday.

"Fifty-three terrorists have been neutralized in the last week, including ones in Iraq and northern Syria, with the strategy of eliminating terrorism at its source, which we resolutely implement," a ministry official told reporters at a background briefing in the capital Ankara.

The total number of terrorists "neutralized" during the year has now reached 995, he added. Turkish authorities use the term "neutralize" to imply that the terrorists in question surrendered or were killed or captured.

His remarks came a day after five Turkish soldiers were killed by harassment fire from the terrorist organization in northern Iraq, where Türkiye launched Operation Claw-Lock last year in April to root out terrorists hiding in the border region. Another soldier later succumbed to his wounds at the hospital, bringing the toll to six, officials said.

The ministry official said: "586 terrorists have been neutralized so far in the Claw-Lock Operation in northern Iraq."

In Syria, the official said, all necessary measures are taken to maintain security and stability in the operation areas, and terrorist attacks are responded to in kind.

Since this January, 86 harassment incidents and attacks have been carried out by the PKK/YPG terrorist group in Türkiye's operation areas, and 744 terrorists were "neutralized" with the immediate intervention of Turkish soldiers, he added.

2 PKK terrorists killed

Similarly, on Wednesday, officials of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) revealed a strike on a car driven by PKK members near the village of Jalala in the province of Sulaimaniyah killed a PKK intelligence official and wounded two members of the group.

Later another car carrying PKK fighters was also hit in a Turkish drone strike near the village of Qalaa, also killing one PKK member and wounding two others, the Iraqi sources added.

The PKK is blacklisted as a terrorist organization in Türkiye, along with the United States and the European Union. It has waged a bloody insurgency in Türkiye since 1984 that has claimed tens of thousands of lives, including women and children.

Ankara maintains dozens of military bases in northern Iraq where it regularly launches operations against the group, which maintains a stronghold in the Qandil Mountains.

In the last few years, intensifying operations in the region have demolished terrorist lairs in Metina, Avashin-Basyan, Zap and Gara. After eradicating the group’s influence in these regions, Türkiye also aims to clear Qandil, Sinjar and Makhmour.

Wednesday’s strikes followed one on Sunday, near Iraqi Kurdistan’s second-largest city of Sulaimaniyah, which killed a PKK military official, Iraqi Kurdistan’s counterterrorism services said.

Türkiye’s military involvement in northern Iraq dates back over two decades, separately from its operations against the PKK, and also included the war against the Daesh terrorist group, which controlled much of the area, in 2014 and 2015, when Ankara was an ally in the U.S.-led anti-Daesh campaign.

3 Daesh terrorists captured

Also on Wednesday, in a joint operation with the Syrian National Army (SNA), Türkiye’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT) captured three members of the Daesh terrorist group while they were preparing an attack in northern Syria, Turkish security sources said Thursday.

The terrorists, all high-ranking figures within Daesh, were caught in an operation led by local Syrian forces and backed by MIT intelligence in the region where Ankara is conducting Operation Peace Spring, the sources said.

The security forces also seized a flamethrower, a rocket launcher, two motorcycles, five hand grenades, five AK-47 rifles, two Makarov pistols, a transmitter, four anti-rank and two anti-personnel RPG ammunition, five RPG propelling cartridges and dozens of cartridge clips and ammunition in operation.

MIT continues its determined fight against all terrorist groups, including Daesh, al-Qaida and the PKK, in Syria and other regions, the sources affirmed.

YPG attack injures 6 in Afrin

In a separate incident on Wednesday, two rocket attacks launched from the Tal Rifaat district by the PKK/YPG, injured six civilians, including three children, at a briquette settlement in opposition-held Afrin, a district of northern Aleppo, civilian defense sources said.

The injured civilians were rushed to hospitals for medical attention.

The PKK/YPG often mounts attacks on Jarablus, Afrin and Azaz from Syria’s Manbij and Tal Rifaat areas. It has occupied the region since taking it over in a Russian air-backed offensive in February 2016.

Afrin was largely cleared of YPG terrorists in 2018 through Türkiye’s counterterrorism offensive Operation Olive Branch, followed by Operation Peace Spring in 2019. The region was set on a path of normalization by restoring several hospitals, schools and other vital facilities.

The PKK/YPG continues to target SNA forces and civilian settlements in Afrin and Azaz from positions in Tal Rifaat despite a Türkiye-Russia deal that calls for the group’s withdrawal from the area. Its attacks have displaced nearly 250,000 civilians, who were forced to seek refuge near the border with Türkiye.

Locals living in areas held by the PKK/YPG have long suffered from its atrocities, as the terrorist organization has a notorious record of human rights abuses, ranging from kidnappings, recruitment of child soldiers, torture, ethnic cleansing and forced displacement in Syria.