Turkey, PKK publish casualty figures for ongoing operation in Kurdistan Region

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Both Ankara and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) have released casualty figures, three weeks into Turkey’s military offensive in the Kurdistan Region. 

Turkey’s Defence Ministry announced on Friday the death of a ninth soldier, killed in the dual operations of Claw-Thunderbolt and Claw-Lightning.

The two campaigns, launched on April 23, are focused on the Metina, Avashin, and Basyan areas of Duhok province, near the border with Turkey.

Murat Karayilan, a senior PKK commander, told the PKK-affiliated Sterk TV on Friday that they have lost 18 fighters since the beginning of the operations and have lost contact with six others.

The PKK is an armed Kurdish group fighting for the increased rights of Kurds in Turkey. Ankara considers it a terrorist organization and a threat to its national security. Turkish forces regularly pursue the PKK within the Kurdistan Region’s borders. 

This year, the Kurdistan Region has seen more deadly clashes than Turkey, according to figures compiled by the International Crisis Group, which tracks the conflict. In the first four months of 2021, there have been 67 fatalities, 55 of them (or 82 percent) in the Kurdistan Region. The dead are 19 Turkish soldiers, 34 PKK fighters, and two civilians.

Since the decades-long conflict was reignited in 2015 following the collapse of peace efforts, 5,372 people have been killed, 773 of them (or about 15 percent) in the Kurdistan Region, including 43 civilians.   

In its latest operation, Turkey has set up several military bases in Duhok province in a bid to cut off PKK routes into Turkey and Syria. Turkish forces have carried out intense bombardments of suspected PKK positions, which have driven residents of two villages to flee their homes.