Turkey neutralizes 32 YPG/PKK terrorists in N Syria

ANKARA

Turkish security forces neutralized 32 YPG/PKK terrorists in northern Syria, the Defense Ministry said on March. 2.

The terrorists attempted to infiltrate into the southern area of "Operation Peace Spring," Turkey's anti-terror offensive in northern Syria, the Turkish ministry said in a tweet.

Operation Peace Spring was launched last October to eliminate terrorist YPG/PKK east of the Euphrates River to secure Turkey's borders, aid in the safe return of Syrian refugees, and ensure Syria's territorial integrity.

Turkish authorities often use the word "neutralized" to imply the terrorists in question surrendered or were killed or captured.

Since 2016, Turkey has launched a trio of successful anti-terrorist operations across its border into northern Syria to prevent the formation of a terror corridor and enable peaceful settlement by locals: Operations Euphrates Shield (2016), Olive Branch (2018), and Peace Spring (2019).

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.

Separately, Turkey on March 1 announced a new offensive in northwestern Syria, Operation Spring Shield. It came after at least 34 Turkish soldiers were martyred and dozens injured in an Assad regime airstrike in the Idlib de-escalation zone, just across Turkey's southern border.