Turkey bombs Kurdish positions in northern Iraq

At least 81 Kurdish rebel positions in northern Iraq were bombed on Sunday by the Turkish regime in a new "anti-terrorist operation" called Claw-Eagle and just three days after the head of the Eurasian nation's intelligence services, Hakan Fidan, visited Iraq to meet with politicians and other senior officials in the country, according to local media reports and the Turkish Ministry of Defence. 

Through the social network Twitter, this organization has explained that the fighter planes used in this operation had destroyed the caves where the rebels were taking refuge, as well as some of the main Kurdish bases in northern Iraq; specifically in Sinjar, Qandil, Karacak, Zap, Avasin-Basyan and Hakurk. In total, this operation - which used home-made weapons and ammunition - was directed against at least 80 targets.  

"While planning and executing the operation, Turkish forces took great care to protect the lives and property of civilians as well as the environment," the Ministry explained in statements collected by the Daily Sabah. In the same statement, the Ministry of Defence described this attack as "a major blow to the terrorists" living in these regions. oristas” que viven en estas regiones. 

Defence Minister Hulusi Akar and the Turkish Armed Forces command were responsible for leading this operation from the Air Force Command Control Centre; the operation also used UAVs and refuelling planes. Akar congratulated the pilots in charge of this attack and thanked them for carrying it out "safely". 

The Ministry said the planes "took maximum care not to harm the civilians and returned to their bases after the attack". At the end of the operation, Akar said that the shelters where "the terrorists (referring to the Kurdish rebels) were planning atrocious attacks on our country" had been destroyed. For his part, the chief of the general staff, the commander of the land forces and his counterparts in the air and naval forces have been among the personnel in charge of leading this operation, whose objective was to "guarantee the security of the Turkish people and the country's borders, neutralizing the PKK and other terrorist organizations that have been intensifying their harassment against Ankara over the last few months," according to information available to the digital Daily Sabah. 

The Turkish Armed Forces carry out this type of operation in northern Iraq relatively frequently, considering that the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) has "hideouts" in this region. The PKK - which, for the moment, has not spoken about this attack - is considered a terrorist organization by nations such as Turkey, the United States and the European Union itself. This party has the support of some Kurdish factions in Iraq; however, it is not backed by the authorities of the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan. The conflict between this party and Turkey has caused the death of thousands of people since it began in 1984. 

This attack has taken place after Hakan Fidan visited Iraq, according to several local media such as Al-Arab who has pointed out that "the head of Turkish intelligence made a secret visit to Baghdad, during which he met with several Iraqi officials in connection with the start of the first round of dialogue between Iraq and the United States, to develop diplomatic relations between the two countries". 

In this same line, the digital Middle East Monitor has highlighted, after consulting several sources present during this meeting, that "Ankara is trying to exploit the relations that Fidan had with the Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi when he was the head of his country's intelligence service, in order to secure his interests in Iraq, which is reorganizing its economic priorities in association with the United States".

Attacks on Kurdish positions in Iraq have intensified at the same time as protests in the country have increased, especially after the People's Democratic Party (HDP) announced last week that it would hold several marches between 15 and 20 June to protest the annulment of the parliamentary immunities of MPs Leyla Güven and Musa Farisoğulları The party has insisted that it will continue to demonstrate against the " innumerable injustices" against Kurdish politicians and civil society, despite the risk of arrest. 

All this, several days after the Turkish Prosecutor's Office ordered the arrest of 275 military personnel for "alleged coup d'état".  Since the July 2016 coup d'état, more than 19,500 members of the Eurasian nation's armed forces have been expelled from the army, while hundreds of people such as journalists, lawyers and even investigators have been arrested for their alleged links with the brotherhood of preacher Fethullah Gülen, accused by the Erdogan regime of being behind the uprising that changed Turkey's history in 2016.