Turkey hits over 15 suspected PKK targets in Kurdistan Region

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Turkish Defense Ministry on Friday announced that its air force had conducted more than 15 airstrikes against suspected Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) targets in the Kurdistan Region’s Duhok province.  

The strikes hit Mount Gara, Matina, and Qandil, where the Kurdish militant group hides and operates, according to a Turkish Defense Ministry statement.

The statement did not elaborate further on whether there was any causality or not.

The Kurdistan 24 reporter in the Raparin area on Friday reported locals witnessed drones in the outskirts.

The airstrikes come as the Turkish intelligence on Thursday announced that it had killed a senior PKK commander in Syria.

The strike is the latest of its kind against the Kurdish militant group by Turkey. Recently, the NATO member had struck numerous vehicles and targets inside the Kurdistan Region, which had resulted in numerous causalities.

Ankara has intensified attacks against the group in both Iraq and Syria after two PKK militants attacked a Turkish internal security organization on October 3.

In northeastern Syria, the strikes had focused on energy and power infrastructure in a bid to weaken the ruling Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), led by the People’s Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara considers as the PKK’s Syrian offshoot.

In addition to drone strikes, which have witnessed an increase due to the country’s advanced drone-making industry, Ankara has launched a number of ground operations against militants in the Kurdistan Region’s mountainous areas since 2021.

Having been engaged in an armed conflict since the mid-1980s, tens of thousands have been killed from both sides.