Turkish jets target PKK in Turkey and northern Iraq

DİYARBAKIR / AĞRI

REUTERS photo

Turkish military airstrikes against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) bases in both Turkey and the northern Iraq continue as part of Turkey’s week-long aerial campaign to fight terrorism, amid the rising violence against Turkish security personnel across the country.

Two Turkish F-16 fighter jets bombed at least three suspected “separatist terrorist organization” targets in southeastern province of Şırnak on July 28, the Turkish General Staff said in a statement July 29. 

The name of the targeted group was not specifically stated by the Turkish General Staff, but the target was believed to be the PKK.

The statement said the jets struck two anti-aircraft gun positions and a mortar position in Düğün Mountain, following an attack on Turkish gendarmerie forces by suspected PKK members in Şırnak’s Uludere Karacali Tepe region. 

Security forces were in the process of carrying out damage assessment in the aftermath of the airstrikes, the statement added.

Meanwhile, Turkish jets also launched a fresh aerial campaign against PKK targets in northern Iraq, private broadcaster CNNTürk said. The F-16s scrambled from the Diyarbakır military base around 9:30 p.m. on July 28, it reported.

The latest Turkish airstrikes targeting the PKK camps both inside the country as well as across the Syrian border came amid an epidemic of terrorist attacks on Turkish security personnel across Turkey, specifically in its eastern and southeastern regions, with scores of deaths and injuries over the past two weeks. 

Three soldiers were injured in clashes with PKK militants in the Doğubayazıt district of the eastern province of Ağrı on July 29. One of the injured was reported to be in serious condition.

In a separate armed assault, Arslan Kulaksız, a commander of the gendarmerie garrison in the eastern province of Muş, was killed on July 27 after gunmen opened fire on his car.