ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey carried out air strikes on Kurdish militants in neighboring Iraq and Syria on Saturday, the Turkish Defense Ministry said, a day after an attack on a Turkish military base in Iraq killed nine Turkish soldiers.
Turkey frequently carries out attacks against targets in Syria and Iraq that it believes are linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a banned Kurdish separatist group that has waged an insurgency against Turkey since the 1980s.
The Defense Ministry said the planes struck targets in Metina, Hakurk, Gara and Qandil in northern Iraq, but did not name any areas in Syria. It said fighter jets had destroyed caves, bunkers, shelters and oil facilities “to prevent terrorist attacks against our people and security forces … and to ensure our border security.” The statement added that “many” militants were “neutralized” by the attacks.
On Friday evening, attackers attempted to enter a military base in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, killing five soldiers. Four others later died from serious injuries. The Turkish government said 36 militants were killed in Iraq and nine more in Syria in the 24 hours after the attack.
There was no immediate comment from the PKK, the government in Baghdad or the Kurdish region's administration.
Turkey launched Operation Claw-Lock in northern Iraq in April 2022, establishing several bases in Duhok Governorate. Baghdad has repeatedly protested against the presence of Turkish troops and called for their withdrawal.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan expressed his condolences over the deaths of the Turkish soldiers.
“We will fight to the end against the PKK terrorist organization inside and outside our borders,” he tweeted.
This is a location map for Iraq with its capital Baghdad. (AP photo)
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan later chaired a security meeting in Istanbul that assessed Turkey's counterterrorism strategy, a government statement said.
Meanwhile, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced that police had arrested 113 people suspected of having links to the PKK following raids in 32 Turkish provinces.
He added that six people were arrested after police identified 110 social media accounts that “praised the separatist terrorist organization for provocative purposes” or spread misleading information.
According to Turkish authorities, PKK-affiliated militants attempted to break into a Turkish base in northern Iraq three weeks ago, killing six soldiers. The following day, six more Turkish soldiers were killed in clashes.
Turkey responded with attacks on sites in Iraq and Syria that officials said were linked to the PKK. Defense Minister Yasar Güler said at the time that dozens of Kurdish militants had been killed in airstrikes and land attacks.
It was not immediately clear whether Friday night's attack and the attack three weeks earlier targeted the same base. The news website Rudaw, based in Erbil in northern Iraq, reported that the base attacked on Friday was on Mount Zap in Amedi district, which is 17 kilometers (about 10 miles) from the Turkish border.
Meanwhile, Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency said a senior PKK fighter had been “neutralized” in Iraq. Faik Aydin was targeted in an operation by Turkish intelligence agency MIT about 160 kilometers (100 miles) inside the Turkish-Iraqi border, Anadolu reported.
The PKK, which maintains bases in northern Iraq, is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey's Western allies, including the United States. Tens of thousands of people have died since the conflict began in 1984.
However, Turkey and the United States are at odds over the status of the Syrian Kurdish groups who have allied with Washington in the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria.