Turkey launches Operation Kapan-3 in country’s SE

ANKARA-Anadolu Agency

Turkey launched Operation Kapan-3 to eliminate terrorists in the country’s southeast, the Interior Ministry announced on Jan. 13.

The gendarmerie command launched the counter-terrorism operation in the rural area of Hakkari province, the ministry said in a statement.

A total of 825 security personnel, including gendarmerie and police forces, are taking part in the operation.

So far, four shelters have been identified and 17 improvised explosive devices, three hand-grenades, a Kalashnikov rifle and a large number of daily use items destroyed.

With Turkey ramping up its fight against terrorists, it launched on Jan. 11 Operation Kapan to eliminate terrorists in the southeastern Mardin province, after completing Operation Kıran in the country's southeast against YPG/PKK terrorists.

Last August, Turkey launched Operation Kıran in the country's southeast against YPG/PKK terrorists in the Van, Hakkari and Şırnak provinces, followed by 10 more iterations of the operation, including operations Kıran-10 and Kıran-11.

The U.S.-backed SDF, a group dominated by the YPG, has been controlling some 28 percent of the Syrian territories, including the most of the 911-kilometer-long Syria-Turkey border.

Turkey deems the YPG the Syrian offshoot of the illegal PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization also by the United States and the EU.