Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – The Turkish military launched a military attack on Iraqi territory, Sunday (17/4/2022) afternoon local time. This attack is aimed at pounding the Kurdish fighters or PKK who inhabit the northern region of the country.
Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said several defense equipment belonging to Ankara was also used in this attack. One of them is unmanned aircraft or drones and special forces.
“Command units and special forces, backed by unmanned aerial vehicles and attack helicopters involved in Operation Claw-Lock, targeted the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) hideouts in the Metina, Zap and Avashin-Basyan regions of Northern Iraq,” Akar said. as reported Al Jazeera.
Akar described the operation as taking place after it was discovered that the PKK was planning a large-scale attack against Turkey. Operation planning has been reported in the Turkish media for weeks.
Even so, the PKK has not issued an official statement regarding this Turkish attack.
The attack itself was launched two days after the rare visit of Prime Minister (PM) of Iraq’s Kurdish autonomous region, Masrour Barzani. He said Ankara had been notified of the planned attack.
“After his talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, we welcome the expansion of cooperation to promote security and stability” in northern Iraq, Barzani said.
Turkey itself regularly carries out attacks in the Kurdish region in northern Iraq which is a PKK training camp. The latest of the attacks came after Operations Claw-Tiger and Claw-Eagle were launched by Turkey in northern Iraq in 2020.
Turkey considers the PKK a terrorist group. They say this group wants to make the Kurdish region of Turkey separate itself from Ankara. The Turkish government says the PKK separatist movement launched its action by intimidating residents.
(tps/luc)
–
