Turkish jets destroy PKK hideouts in northern Iraq

ANKARA

Turkish jets have destroyed weapon depots and hideouts used by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in northern Iraq, the Turkish General Staff said in a statement on Sept. 24.         

It said warplanes carried out an airstrike in the Gara region on Sept. 23 and destroyed arms and ammunition depots used by PKK militants.  

The statement said the air raids were part of ongoing operations targeting the organization in northern Iraq.        

In a separate incident, a Turkish soldier and a worker were killed and two other soldiers were wounded on Sept. 23 in an attack by PKK militants in the southeastern province of Hakkari’s Şemdinli district, the Hakkari Governor’s Office said. 

The PKK militants fired rocket and mortars from the Iraqi side onto the Turkish village of Tekeli on the border, the governor’s office said in a statement. 
 
Meanwhile, Turkish security forces killed 17 PKK militants in operations in the last 24 hours, the Interior Ministry said on Sept. 23.         

According to a statement by the ministry, security forces carried out counter-terrorism operations in the southeastern and eastern provinces of Mardin, Hakkari, Batman, Van, and Elazığ over the last 24 hours.        
During the operations, six militants, each in Mardin and Elazığ, were killed, and three militants were killed in Van.        

Security forces also killed one militant each in the Hakkari and Batman provinces, the statement said.        

A number of weapons and pieces of ammunition were also seized during the operations, it added.     

Separately, security forces seized around three tons of hashish and 190,000 roots of cannabis sativa with a market value of about 102 million Turkish Liras (around $29 million) in an operation launched against PKK militants in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır, the local governor’s office said in a statement on Sept. 24.   

“Within the boundaries of the seven villages of the Lice district [of Diyarbakır] 3,132.55 kilograms of hashish and 190,000 roots of cannabis sativa with a market value of almost 102 million liras were seized. As per the instruction of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the hashish was taken under protection, whereas the cannabis sativa was destroyed at the place of the incident after a sample was taken,” the Diyarbakır Governor’s Office said. 

During the four-day-long operations conducted between Sept. 20 and 23 in Diyarbakır’s Lice, Hazro, and Silvan districts, eight caves and shelters belonging to the PKK militants were destroyed, the statement also said.