ANKARA, Turkey – Recent Turkish airstrikes against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party in northern Iraq have killed 390 PKK members and injured 400, Turkey’s official Anadolu Agency on Sunday quoted unidentified security sources as saying.
“Turkish security sources are claiming to have killed a total of 390 militants from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in a series of recent air strikes against rebel targets in northern Iraq,” the agency said.
“An anonymous security force source also told Anadolu Agency that 400 PKK insurgents were injured in the attacks,” the agency added.
Giving a partial list of targets, it said they included an air raid on the Bokriskan region of Iraq, in which a PKK battalion commander, identified as Sehit Dilan, was killed along with four other leaders, and 30 other militants were wounded.
More than 20 PKK members, including the head of its women’s branch – identified by her code name Gulten – were killed in an attack on the group’s Zergele camp in Iraqi Kurdistan’s Qandil mountains.
In Enze in northern Iraq, buildings used as PKK headquarters were destroyed and almost 30 female militants were killed, according to the sources quoted by AA.
It added that, “More than 20 security force personnel have been killed in attacks mostly attributed to the PKK and at least 1,300 people arrested in operations targeting various militant groups.”
Tensions in Turkey escalated after the PKK claimed responsibility for assassinating two policemen in Gaziantep last month, ending a shaky peace process with Ankara that began in 2013.
The latest hostilities have brought that peace process to a halt.
A fortnight ago, Turkish air force jets and artillery began a hail of attacks against the PKK, including airstrikes and artillery fire on PKK camps in the Kurdistan Region’s Qandil Mountains.
The airstrikes coincided with nationwide raids inside Turkey and serious confrontations between Kurdish activists and the Turkish police.
Meanwhile, the jailed leader of the PKK, Abdullah Ocalan, called on his group and the Turkish government to end ongoing clashes and resume negotiations, which were planned to lead to permanent peace in the country.
The Civil Peace Department, a government-backed organization which supervises the peace process between Ankara and the PKK, published a letter written by Ocalan in which the jailed leader slammed the negotiating partners for the “bloodshed.”
“Our (PKK) fighters, leaders of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and the Turkish government’s officials failed to administer and commit themselves to the peace negotiations,” Ocalan wrote from his prison on Imrali Island in the Sea of Marmara, calling for an immediate ceasefire.
The PKK remains banned in Turkey and is on the terror lists of the United States and the European Union.
Before the Turkish attacks, there had been growing calls in Europe and the United States to remove the PKK from the lists of international terrorist groups.
Through its PYD affiliate in Syria, the PKK has been instrumental in the fight against the Islamic State group (ISIS). The group had even received limited US and European support for the fight against ISIS.
“Turkish security sources are claiming to have killed a total of 390 militants from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in a series of recent air strikes against rebel targets in northern Iraq,” the agency said.
“An anonymous security force source also told Anadolu Agency that 400 PKK insurgents were injured in the attacks,” the agency added.
Giving a partial list of targets, it said they included an air raid on the Bokriskan region of Iraq, in which a PKK battalion commander, identified as Sehit Dilan, was killed along with four other leaders, and 30 other militants were wounded.
More than 20 PKK members, including the head of its women’s branch – identified by her code name Gulten – were killed in an attack on the group’s Zergele camp in Iraqi Kurdistan’s Qandil mountains.
In Enze in northern Iraq, buildings used as PKK headquarters were destroyed and almost 30 female militants were killed, according to the sources quoted by AA.
It added that, “More than 20 security force personnel have been killed in attacks mostly attributed to the PKK and at least 1,300 people arrested in operations targeting various militant groups.”
Tensions in Turkey escalated after the PKK claimed responsibility for assassinating two policemen in Gaziantep last month, ending a shaky peace process with Ankara that began in 2013.
The latest hostilities have brought that peace process to a halt.
A fortnight ago, Turkish air force jets and artillery began a hail of attacks against the PKK, including airstrikes and artillery fire on PKK camps in the Kurdistan Region’s Qandil Mountains.
The airstrikes coincided with nationwide raids inside Turkey and serious confrontations between Kurdish activists and the Turkish police.
Meanwhile, the jailed leader of the PKK, Abdullah Ocalan, called on his group and the Turkish government to end ongoing clashes and resume negotiations, which were planned to lead to permanent peace in the country.
The Civil Peace Department, a government-backed organization which supervises the peace process between Ankara and the PKK, published a letter written by Ocalan in which the jailed leader slammed the negotiating partners for the “bloodshed.”
“Our (PKK) fighters, leaders of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and the Turkish government’s officials failed to administer and commit themselves to the peace negotiations,” Ocalan wrote from his prison on Imrali Island in the Sea of Marmara, calling for an immediate ceasefire.
The PKK remains banned in Turkey and is on the terror lists of the United States and the European Union.
Before the Turkish attacks, there had been growing calls in Europe and the United States to remove the PKK from the lists of international terrorist groups.
Through its PYD affiliate in Syria, the PKK has been instrumental in the fight against the Islamic State group (ISIS). The group had even received limited US and European support for the fight against ISIS.
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