ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Fifteen Turkish drones have been shot down by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) inside the Kurdistan Region over the past year, the group’s military wing announced on Wednesday.
According to a Wednesday statement by the People’s Defense Forces (HPG), the PKK’s military wing, the group has downed 15 drones since February 2023, the latest drone being shot down on March 1.
The group also noted that it has acquired new missile systems to shoot down Turkish drones, without providing details on the type and quantity of the acquisition.
PKK-affiliated media published footage and images of four of the 15 shot-down drones.
The Turkish defense ministry has yet to comment on the statement, which comes a day after the ministry announced that it had bombarded 27 positions of the PKK after the group killed one of its soldiers inside the Kurdistan Region.
Turkey has recently upped its efforts to curb the PKK threat on its border with the Kurdistan Region. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said earlier this month that Ankara is close to completing a zone that will “permanently resolve” the security issues along their border with the Kurdistan Region and Iraq by the summer.
He also called on everyone in the region to respect Ankara’s security strategy, or else “ be the cause of the tensions that will arise.”
Last week, a high-level Turkish delegation consisting of Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Defense Minister Yasar Guler, and the head of the intelligence agency (MIT) Ibrahim Kalin, arrived in Baghdad to hold a second round of high-level security talks. The first round of talks was held in Ankara in December.
A day after the meeting, The Iraqi National Security Council banned the PKK from operating in the country, claiming that the group poses a threat to Baghdad and neighboring Turkey.
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