ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Turkey’s defense ministry announced on Monday that its forces had struck and “destroyed” 20 suspected positions of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the mountainous areas of the Kurdistan Region.
The Turkish forces conducted an “air operation” in the Metina, Zap, Gara, Khwakurk, Qandil, and Asos areas of the Kurdistan Region, in which 20 targets “including caves, shelters, bunkers, depots, and facilities,” allegedly used by the PKK, were “destroyed,” according to the statement.
The strike is the latest episode of Turkey’s ongoing operations in the Kurdistan Region aimed at eradicating the PKK.
Kamaran Osman from the Community Peacemaker Teams (CPT), a human rights organization that monitors Turkey’s operations in the Kurdistan Region, told Rudaw on Tuesday that Turkish warplanes struck positions across Sulaimani, Erbil, and Duhok provinces 24 times on Monday evening.
Turkey began intensifying its decades-long war against the PKK, especially in Duhok province, in mid-June after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan repeatedly said he would launch a new offensive during the summer. Ankara has deployed hundreds of troops to the province.
The PKK is a Kurdish group that has waged an armed insurgency against the Turkish state for decades in the struggle for greater Kurdish rights and is considered a terrorist organization by Ankara.
Recent Turkish bombardments have also caused wildfires in Duhok province. Turkey and the PKK each blame the other for the frequent blazes.
Turkish military operations in the Kurdistan Region have killed 344 civilians since they began over three decades ago, CPT said in a report published mid-August.
Data compiled by CPT estimates that Ankara has conducted over 1,000 attacks on the Kurdistan Region and Nineveh province so far in 2024.
