Turkey carried out airstrikes against “terrorist targets” in northern Iraq and Syria on Friday night and Syria after the deaths of nine of its soldiers, the Turkish Defense Ministry said.
Nine Turkish soldiers were killed and four others injured in an attack on a Turkish military base in northern Iraq, the same ministry said early Saturday, revising the previous death toll of six upwards.
“In accordance with our right to self-defense […]“Air operations against terrorist targets were carried out in Metina, Hakurk, Gara and Qandil regions,” the Turkish Defense Ministry reported in a statement.
The Turkish army said it targeted “29 targets consisting of caves, bunkers, shelters and oil facilities” belonging to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the People's Protection Units (YPG), two armed groups of Kurds controlled by Turkey be viewed as terrorists.
Ankara's army regularly carries out ground and air operations against PKK militants in northern Iraq, autonomous Kurdistan or the mountainous Sinjar region, and Turkish soldiers are regularly killed in the region.
In response to this serious attack on the Turkish armed forces, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will hold a security meeting in Istanbul on Saturday in the presence of his foreign, defense and interior ministers, the head of state and the Turkish secret services.
Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on the social network
In this context, the ruling AKP party and the main opposition party, the CHP, have decided to postpone the presentation of some of their candidates for the local elections on March 31, scheduled for this weekend.