Turkey strikes Kurdish militants in Iraq
Turkey has launched air strikes in northern Iraq on Kurdish militants planning an attack, the Turkish Army announced on 23 January.
The strikes took place in the Zap region of northern Iraq, not far from Turkey's southeastern border.
The army said it was targeting members of the ‘separatist terrorist organisation' - Turkey's official term for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
The militants were planning an attack on border security posts and bases, the army said, adding that the strikes destroyed weapons emplacements and shelters.
The PKK has been waging an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984, and is blacklisted as a terror group by Ankara and its Western allies.
After a two-year ceasefire collapsed in 2015, the Turkish army intensified its military operations against the PKK in the Turkish southeast.
The Turkish Air Force has regularly carried out raids on PKK rear bases around the Qandil mountains in northern Iraq since then.
Turkish troops also sometimes stage ground incursions into the area.
The strikes in Iraq come four days after Turkey started a military operation, supporting Syrian rebels, against the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia in a bid to remove it from its western enclave of Afrin in northern Syria.
Ankara views the YPG as an offshoot of the PKK and repeatedly calls them ‘terrorists’.
More from Special Operations
-
![US Special Operations Command seeks $1.3 billion investment in intelligence]()
US Special Operations Command seeks $1.3 billion investment in intelligence
As part of its FY2025 budget proposal, the service requested funds for tactical intelligence collection and analysis solutions and for ISR, processing, exploitation and dissemination programmes.
-
![UPDATED: Romania orders Polaris DAGOR special operations vehicles]()
UPDATED: Romania orders Polaris DAGOR special operations vehicles
Polaris has been awarded a contract to provide 50 of its DAGOR ultralight tactical vehicles to Romania, joining other NATO countries such as Canada, the UK and US as operators.
-
![SOF Week 2023: Commander, Special Operations Command - Korea interview]()
SOF Week 2023: Commander, Special Operations Command - Korea interview
The Commander of Special Operations Command - Korea provides an update at SOF Week 2023.
-
![SOF Week 2023: GSOF reflects on a successful first SOF Week (video)]()
SOF Week 2023: GSOF reflects on a successful first SOF Week (video)
As the inaugural SOF Week draws to a close, the head of the Global SOF Foundation reflects on a successful event.
-
![SOF Week 2023: CACI International Inc displays EW capabilities (video)]()
SOF Week 2023: CACI International Inc displays EW capabilities (video)
Among the vendors on the show floor at SOF Week 2023 was CACI International Inc.
-
![SOF Week 2023: US Air Force Special Operations Command interview (video)]()
SOF Week 2023: US Air Force Special Operations Command interview (video)
The commander of US Air Force Special Operations Command talks to the SOF Week show daily.
