BEIRUT, LEBANON (8:20 A.M.) – On Sunday, the Turkish Ministry of Defense announced the launch of the “Eagle Claw” military operation in northern Iraq against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
The Turkish Defense Ministry said on Sunday that “our planes are destroying terrorists’ burrows over their heads,” as their aircraft bombed several areas in the Sinjar region, including a site near a refugee camp.
The ministry said that “two terrorists were neutralized in an airstrike after surveillance operations in the areas of Zab, Afashin and Baysan in northern Iraq.”
The ministry pledged that operations against the PKK “will continue” until the last fighter is neutralized.
The Turkish forces launched airstrikes in the Sinjar and Qandil mountains, as well as the Makhmour Refugee Camp,.
More than 20 Turkish missiles targeted sites in the Mount Sinjar region of the Nineveh Governorate, while three other missiles hit the Makhmour Camp, causing a massive explosion in the area.
In the past years, Turkish forces have carried out intensive operations against the PKK, whom they consider terrorists, in both Iraq and Syria.
Iraq has rejected Turkey’s operations and repeatedly demanded that they halt all hostilities and respect their territorial sovereignty.
The PKK and Turkish military were at war for several years in the latter part of the 20th Century, as the Kurdish group waged a long battle in the southern and eastern regions of the country.
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