Turkey carried out airstrikes against Kurdish militants in neighboring Syria and Iraq in response to another attack on Turkish military bases in Iraq.
Turkish jets destroyed 29 bunkers, shelters, caves and oil facilities across the Metina, Hakurk, Gara and Qandil regions in northern Iraq and northern Syria, according to Turkey’s defense ministry. The ministry said the sites belonged to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the People’s Protection Units (YPG), a Syrian-Kurdish group at the forefront of the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State (ISIS).
Turkey considers both the PKK and YPG to be terrorist organizations and regularly bombs their enclaves in Syria and Iraq. The latest attack came hours after PKK fighters assaulted a Turkish army base in northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region on Friday. The militant group killed nine Turkish soldiers and wounded another four, losing 15 of its men in the process, according to the defense ministry.
“We will fight to the end against the PKK terrorist organization within and outside our borders,” Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, said on Saturday, offering his condolences to the soldiers’ families.
The Turkish military has been present in northern Iraq since April 2022, as part of Operation Claw-Lock. The mission aims to dismantle the PKK’s foothold there and prevent it from launching cross-border guerrilla raids into Turkey. But Ankara has struggled to protect its bases, with deadly attacks now occurring every few weeks.
The Iraqi government in Baghdad has repeatedly called for Ankara’s withdrawal, but Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has vowed to stay until the mission is complete.