News / Turkey

Turkish airstrikes kill over dozen Kurdish PKK terrorists in northern Iraq

Monday, 29 April 2019 2:22 PM [ Last Update: Monday, 29 April 2019 2:28 PM ]

This file picture shows Turkish fighter jets flying in formation. (Photo by Anadolu news agency)

Turkish military aircraft have “neutralized” more than a dozen members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militant group when they carried out a string of airstrikes against a terrorist hideout in Iraq's northern semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.

Colonel Tamer Zincir, an official with the Turkish Defense Ministry, told reporters in the capital Ankara on Monday that the fighter jets had conducted airstrikes against a cave in the Zap region of northern Iraq late on Sunday, and “neutralized” 14 PKK terrorists in the process.

The Turkish military generally uses the term "neutralize" to signify that the militants were killed, captured or surrendered.

Meanwhile, the Turkish Defense Ministry, in a message published on its official Twitter page, said Turkish fighter jets had hit designated targets in the Haftanin regions of northern Iraq.

Shelters and ammunition depots used by PKK terrorists were destroyed as a result.

PKK militants regularly clash with Turkish forces in the Kurdish-dominated southeast of Turkey attached to northern Iraq.

Turkey, along with the European Union and the United States, has declared the PKK a terrorist group and banned it. The militant group has been seeking an autonomous Kurdish region since 1984.

A shaky ceasefire between the PKK and the Turkish government collapsed in July 2015. Attacks on Turkish security forces have soared ever since.

Over the past few months, Turkish ground and air forces have been carrying out operations against PKK positions in the country as well as in northern Iraq and neighboring Syria.

More than 40,000 people have been killed during the three-decade conflict between Turkey and the autonomy-seeking militant group.

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