Ankara announced a new ground and air cross-border operation, dubbed Claw-Lock, against PKK bases and hideouts in Duhok’s Metina, Zap, Avashin, and Basyan areas early Monday. The PKK is an armed Kurdish group fighting for greater rights for Kurds in Turkey, considered a terrorist organization by Turkey.
“Neighboring Turkey has bombed the Iraqi lands unjustly and without pretext, and if there is any danger on it [Turkey] from the Iraqi lands, it [Turkey] must coordinate with the Iraqi government to end the danger for the Iraqi security forces are capable of doing that,” Sadr wrote in a tweet.
“If this is repeated [from Ankara], we will not remain silent for Iraq is a fully sovereign country,” he added.
The Iraqi government on Monday said it strongly rejects and condemns the recent operation.
“Iraq considers this action a violation of its sovereignty and the sanctity of the country, and an act that violates international charters and laws that regulate relations between countries,” a spokesperson for the Iraqi foreign ministry Ahmed al-Sahaf said in a statement.
The Iraqi government emphasized and reiterated that Iraq “shall not be a headquarters or a corridor to inflict harm on any of the neighboring countries and also rejects for Iraq to be an arena of conflict and settling matters for other external parties,” it added.
Hours into the incursion, Ankara claimed that 19 PKK fighters were "neutralized" in the first phase of the operation, while the PKK said it had killed 28 Turkish soldiers. Turkish officials use the term “neutralize” to imply surrenders, killings or capturing.
Turkey’s defense ministry early Tuesday announced the death of a Turkish soldier during the offense.
Turkey has conducted numerous cross-border aerial and ground operations against the PKK over the past decade. In February, it launched the Winter Eagle operation against the armed group in Shingal and Makhmour.
The latest offense came two days after Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani’s visit to Istanbul, where he met with the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday.
Turkey has come under criticism from Baghdad, Erbil, Tehran, and the wider international community for violating Iraqi sovereignty, but Ankara continues to establish increasing numbers of bases and outposts in the mountains of Erbil and Duhok provinces.
