Two Turkish soldiers killed in operation in northern Iraq

ISTANBUL

Two Turkish soldiers were killed in northern Iraq in clashes with PKK terrorists as part of Operation Claw, Turkey’s Defense Ministry said on Jan. 2.

“Drowned in sadness, we wish Allah’s mercy upon our martyrs and express our condolences to their families, the Turkish Armed Forces and our noble nation,” the ministry said, adding that the cross-border operation supported by the Turkish Air Forces is under way.

In May 2019, Turkey launched the first Operation Claw against the PKK terrorist organization in the Hakurk region of northern Iraq.

PKK, listed by Turkey, the United States and the European Union as a terrorist organization, often uses northern Iraq as a base to plan cross-border terrorist attacks against Turkey.

In the meantime, Turkey has neutralized the YPG/PKK terror group’s so-called intelligence head Metin Arslan in northern Iraq, state-run Anadolu Agency reported on Jan. 3.

Arslan, codenamed Koçer, was also the cousin of the terror group’s ringleader, Abdullah Öcalan, said security sources who asked not to be named due to restrictions on talking to the media.

The terrorist was wanted in the red category of the Interior Ministry’s list. The list is divided into five color-coded categories, with red as the most wanted, followed by blue, green, orange and gray.

The 52-year-old man who joined the terror group in 1994 was the mastermind of many plots targeting Turkey. He had been injured in a Turkish airstrike in northern Syria in 2017.

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