Turkey reports three killed in attack on PKK in Iraq
The country presided over by Recep Tayyip Erdogan carried out an attack against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the Gara region of northern Iraq, where three soldiers were killed and four others wounded. The report confirming the casualties was issued by the Ministry of Defence via Twitter, in which it also unveiled the information of the operation "Claw-Eagle 2", which targeted PKK bases. Vice President Fuat Oktay also expressed his condolences to the families of the dead, including Lieutenant Burak Coşkun and Sergeant Harun Turhan (the identity of the third is unknown), and a speedy recovery to the other wounded.
Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said in January that Ankara was prepared to 'support' Iraq and 'eliminate' PKK forces in the Sinjar region: 'cooperation and coordination against the PKK play a very important role. We are ready for all possible coordination with Iraq". The Kurdistan Workers' Party is considered a terrorist organisation by the Turkish government, the United States and the European Union. Despite this, it enjoys the support of certain Iraqi Kurdish sectors, but not that of the authorities in the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan. Since its rise against government forces in 1984, more than 40,000 people have been killed, most of them Kurds.
Turkish bombardment of PKK forces in northern Iraq has been a constant for years, as this is where the terrorist organisation's bases and headquarters are located. In addition, since May 2019, they have also been deploying ground units located in the border area of the country. This ongoing violence has also spilled over into politics, leading to a campaign of arrests and convictions against members and supporters of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), which is the third largest force in Turkey's parliament.
Despite Turkey's claimed support for these attacks against the PKK, Iraq has on numerous occasions expressed its opposition to the repeated operations carried out on its territory. Baghdad considers these to be "violations of the sovereignty of its territory and airspace", and has even repeatedly summoned Turkey's ambassador.
This operation by Turkish forces joins the one recently carried out against the Kurdish city of Duhok, known as "Claw-Tiger 2", which sought, as on this occasion, to neutralise the PKK. Turkey's efforts in the border area with Iraq are primarily aimed at "eliminating terrorist attacks against our people and security forces from northern Iraq and guaranteeing our border security", as Minister Akar stated. However, it is not proving easy for Erdogan's forces to deal with the terrorist organisation because the PKK also regularly carries out attacks on Turkish territory.
Iraq is not the PKK's only area of settlement. Northern Syria is also home to some PKK camps that have not escaped attacks by the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) to prevent them from gaining a foothold on Syrian territory. Since 2016 they have carried out three attacks against the region, Operation Euphrates Shield (2016), Operation Olive Branch (2018) and Operation Peace Spring (2019) which, for the time being, have managed to maintain a path free of PKK forces along the entire border with the neighbouring country.
