The bombing was 140 km from the border, according to Turkey. (Reuters Archive)
Hulusi Akar, the defence minister for Turkey, declared on Thursday that this week Turkey struck PKK strongholds “140 kilometres from the border” in Iraqi territory.
In Sirnak, a city in southeast Turkey with a large Kurdish population, the Turkish minister stated, “We conducted an air operation on Monday in northern Iraq in the Assos region, 140 kilometres from the border.
Akar claims that the website belonging to the “leadership of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party,” which Ankara and its allies in the West categorise as a “terrorist” group, was targeted by the Turkish army.
Without stating whether any lives were lost as a result of the targeting of the hilly area, he continued, “16 caves utilised by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party were destroyed.”
In an effort to create a security zone along his country’s southern border, the Turkish army has been conducting operations against the Kurdistan Workers Party and its allies’ positions in northern Iraq since mid-April and has threatened to conduct a parallel large-scale attack against the PKK fighters in northern Syria.
Due to resistance from Russia, which backs Damascus-aligned organisations, and the United States, which helped Kurdish movements battle ISIS, the threat has not been carried out to date.
Turkey declares that it will target sites in northern Iraq following the Iranian bombing.
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