The Turkish military carried out aerial strikes against Kurdish militants in northern Iraq and Syria on Monday night. The defence ministry reported the destruction of 23 targets.
The escalation began on Friday when nine Turkish soldiers were killed in clashes with Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in northern Iraq. Ankara responded to the killings with airstrikes and operations in both northern Iraq and northern Syria.
The Metina, Gara, Hakurk and Qandil regions of northern Iraq were hit by airstrikes on Monday. The attacks were designed to secure the borders and prevent further offences.
Turkey’s defence ministry reported that many militants had been “neutralised.”
Twenty-three targets were destroyed, including caves, shelters, tunnels, ammunition warehouses, supply materials and facilities used by the terrorist organisation.
The PKK, recognised as a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, lifted arms against the Turkish state in 1984. More than 40,000 people have been killed during the insurgency. As result, Turkish forces have regularly carried out strikes against PKK militants based in the mountains of northern Iraq.
Turkey has also conducted a series of military incursions and bombings in Syria against the Kurdish YPG militia, which it considered a wing of the PKK.
Turkish authorities claimed on Monday that police had detained 18 people for “praising terrorism” following the killing of Turkish soldiers on Friday, and that a senior PKK member had been “neutralised” in northern Iraq.
