Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) on Saturday launched a large-scale military operation against terrorists in northern Iraq.
Scout aircraft are also patrolling the area in the region across from Turkey’s Şırnak and Hakkari provinces, Hawar said, citing local sources. In addition to F-16 fighter jets, border artillery units, fire support elements in the forward base areas and attack helicopters are participating in the operation.
According to operations command, more than 460 targets had been successfully destroyed within the first 24 hours.
The TAF had carried out airstrikes in the region earlier in the day, and dispatched troops via helicopter starting at 20:00 local time (17:00 GMT), local sources told Hawar.
Ground troops are supported by Turkish outposts shelling the area, the agency said.
Turkey continued air and land operations in Northern Iraq throughout the summer and winter against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a group designated terrorist by Ankara that has fought for Kurdish self-rule in Turkey for some four decades.
Late Saturday afternoon, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that many terrorists were neutralized and that multiple hideouts and caves were already destroyed. There is no place in the future of Turkey, Iraq or Syria for terrorist or separatist groups, he added.
Northern Iraq is known as the location for many PKK terrorist hideouts and bases from where they carry out attacks in Turkey.
The PKK targets are being struck in the Metina, Avashin-Basyan, Zap and Qandil regions.
Erdogan said the new operations in northern Iraq will contribute to peace and regional security while highlighting Turkey’s respect for Iraq’s territorial integrity.
Turkish television showed images of paratroopers jumping from helicopters and camouflaged soldiers firing guns.
The PKK, listed as a terror group by Turkey and much of the international community, has for decades used Iraq’s northern mountains as a springboard for its insurgency against the Turkish state.
The Turkish army regularly conducts cross-border operations and air raids against PKK bases in northern Iraq.
The strikes have led to numerous civilian deaths, however, with scores of Kurdish villages being evacuated in the region.
The reported objective of the new campaign is to disrupt PKK infiltrations prior to the traditional “summer offensives” of the terror outfit.
The timing of the military sweep raised eyebrows, because it was made public literally minutes before wire services announced Joe Biden calling the forced exile and slaughter of Anatolian Armenians in 1915 “genocide”.
Various news services
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