Jul 20 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Turkish Ministry of Defense reported on Saturday that the Armed Forces have “neutralized” five members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and related organizations in attacks in Syrian and Iraqi territory.
“We continue to fight tirelessly with all our might for our martyrs, our nation, for our beloved homeland. Our heroic Turkish Armed Forces have neutralized 15 PKK terrorists in the Hakurk and Asos regions of northern Iraq, and four PKK/YPG (People’s Protection Units) terrorists in the Euphrates Shield and Peace Spring regions of northern Syria,” the ministry said in a statement.
“We will continue to fight in proactive operations without interruption to eliminate terrorism at its source,” the military statement added.
The message is accompanied by a video showing several shots from artillery vehicles, rocket launchers and the take-off of an F-16 fighter jet, as well as the launching of several surface-to-air missiles. The forcefulness of the military means employed suggests that the neutralised PKK members could have been killed.
Two pro-Turkish Syrian militants were killed Friday in clashes with Kurdish forces near the northern Syrian city of Afrin, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based organisation with informants inside Syria, reported.
Pro-Turkish Levant Front and Afrin Liberation Forces (HRE) troops launched an attack in Aleppo province on Friday, “leading to the deaths of two Levant Front members and the wounding of several others.”
Afrin is a Kurdish city captured by Turkey and allied Syrian militias in 2018. Most of the Kurdish population fled the town and Turkish forces have relocated displaced Arabs from other parts of Syria.
Since the PKK took up arms in 1984 to demand independence from Turkey’s Kurdish-majority southeast, more than 40,000 people have been killed in violence. The Turkish military operation is now expanding to northern Iraq and northern and northeastern Syria.
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