PKK terrorists have started setting fire to the woods in northern Iraq to conceal themselves, Türkiye’s Defense Ministry said Thursday.

"PKK terrorists who have in the past used civilians as shields in Dergele village to shoot mortar fire at Turkish troops have begun setting forests on fire to hide their locations," the ministry said in a statement on X.

"They know about the Turkish Armed Forces’ (TSK) sensitivity on civilians and residential areas," it said. "As they have for so many years, they’re trying to jeopardize the local civilian population."

The ministry also said the PKK was trying to "fool" the local public with the lie that it was the TSK fire at terrorist targets that caused the wildfires.

The PKK is endangering civilian lives and properties by opening random gunfire in the villages they raid, the ministry said.

"No matter what the terrorist group does, Turkish forces will maintain its sensitivity about civilians, residential areas, the environment and nature," it added.

Sabotage methods

PKK is known to often use arson attacks as a sabotage technique, hailed as such by PKK’s de-facto leader Murat Karayılan. The group was blamed for a series of wildfires that raged across Türkiye’s 52 provinces in the Mediterranean, Aegean, Marmara, Western Black Sea and southeastern Anatolia regions in the summer of 2021, as well. The flames claimed at least eight lives and injured over 1,520 others.

Last year in December, Turkish authorities discovered a PKK plot for sabotage acts in the country. They detained 38 suspects linked to its "sabotage team" that regularly paid the suspects to run reconnaissance on potential targets.

One of the suspects confessed to police that he set fire to marinas in the Aegean resort city of Bodrum in January 2022 in exchange for TL 185,000, which amounted to roughly $10,000 at the time.

Similarly, in October 2020, the PKK claimed an attack where four arsonists linked to the "Children of Fire Initiative" burned forestland in southern Hatay province.

The so-called "initiative" was responsible for many arsons in recent years, and it is known for its close ties to the PKK. It has claimed the environmental destruction they caused was a so-called act of revenge.

The group has turned to "environmental terrorism" much more frequently in recent years after focusing on such acts of attacks and sabotage in the 1990s and 2000s from time to time, according to a report by the Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA).

The report, analyzing acts of "environmental terrorism" and the PKK’s forest fire sabotage, details how the terrorist organization has turned to forest fires to hurt Türkiye’s economy as it actively tried to scare away tourists while also trying to shift the blame onto the Turkish government.

The forest fires started by the PKK have been largely ignored by the international media, notes the report.

The PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union – is responsible for over 40,000 civilian and security personnel deaths in Türkiye during an almost four-decadelong campaign of terror.

Since the 1980s, Türkiye has been carrying out operations both in the country and beyond its borders, including in Iraq and Syria, to root out the terrorist group. The crackdown escalated thanks to a stronger army and advancing defense technology, as well as the expanding work of the intelligence service.

Authorities say the number of active PKK terrorists within Türkiye trickled down to hundreds when they were thousands a few decades ago.

Cross-border operations in northern Iraq and Syria have intensified notably since 2015, with both ground and air forces battling the organization.

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

Ankara also battles the YPG in northern Syria, where they plot attacks on Turkish forces or the local populations.

The terrorists set fire to forests and farmland across these regions on several occasions as well.