Turkey Launches New Raid Against Kurdish Bases in Northern Iraq
Arab World
Asharq Al-Awsat
The Turkish army on Saturday launched a new ground and air offensive against outlawed Kurdish militants’ bases in northern Iraq, officials and local media reported. Turkish media said commando forces landed in the Metina region from helicopters while warplanes dropped bombs on Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) targets. “Heroic commandos of the heroic Turkish Armed Forces are in northern Iraq,” the defense ministry said in a tweet without specifying how many soldiers were involved, AFP reported. Turkish television showed images of paratroopers jumping from helicopters and camouflaged soldiers firing guns. Turkey considers the PKK as a terror group. The Turkish army regularly conducts cross-border operations and air raids against PKK bases in northern Iraq. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan dubbed this one “Operation Claw-Lightning”. Speaking to the operation’s command center by video link, Erdogan said the offensive’s objective was “to completely end the presence of the terror threat ... along our southern borders”. “There’s no room for the separatist terror group in the future of Turkey, Iraq or Syria,” he said in reference to the Kurdish fighters. “We will keep on fighting until we eradicate these gangs of murderers, who cause nothing but tears and destruction.” In February, Turkey launched an operation dubbed “Claw-Eagle 2” against PKK rebels holed up in the northern Iraqi region of Dohuk. That raid created controversy because it was designed in part to rescue 12 Turkish soldiers and an Iraqi held captive by the PKK in a cave. Turkey accused the PKK of executing the 13 men before they could be freed, and Erdogan came under attack for poorly planning the offensive from opposition parties in parliament.
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/2938276/turkey-launches-new-raid-against-kurdish-bases-northern-iraq
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