Ministers inform two opposition parties, brief parliament about PKK killings in Iraq

ANKARA

Defense Minister Hulusi Akar and Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu on Feb. 16 separately paid visits to the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and İYİ (Good) Party to inform them about the illegal PKK group’s killing of 13 Turks in the Gara region of northern Iraq and Operation Claw-Eagle 2.

The ministers then briefed members of parliament on the details of the operation.

“The operation started on Feb. 10 at 02:55 a.m. with aircraft support. It was not possible to intervene in the cave via air elements. At 5:45, an air assault operation was initiated, and our special forces units started to land with helicopters. At first contact, there were two martyrs and one injured in one of the regions. Our injured officer was martyred in hospital,” Akar said in his address to parliament.

There was an exchange of fire between PKK members and the Turkish security forces before Turkish troops entered the cave, he said. But only tear gas was used while the soldiers entered the cave, he stressed, noting that the Turkish forces found the bodies of the kidnapped nationals and caught two PKK members alive.

“The PKK terrorists that were caught during the operation stated that 13 people held hostage were martyred after they were shot in their heads at the beginning of the airstrike operation,” he stated.

The outcome of the operation is that the PKK had serious causality, between an area of 75 km-25 km in the Gara region, the minister said, noting that at least 51 PKK members were killed and four of them were senior terrorists