Turkish artillery battered Kurdish separatist positions across northern Iraq over the weekend, hitting at least 25 targets and “neutralizing several terrorists,” according to defense and security officials.
“In line with our right to self-defense ... air operations were carried out against terrorist targets in northern Iraq, in the Gara, Qandil, and Asos regions,” Turkey’s defense ministry said in a statement.
The defense ministry specified that it struck “caves, bunkers, shelters, stores, and installations” being used by the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), an armed separatist group committed to the creation of an independent Kurdish state through violence.
Claims made saying bombing didn't kill civilians
According to Community Peacemakers Teams (CPT), a local NGO operating in Iraqi Kurdistan, the bombing did not injure or kill any civilians.
There have been at least 230 instances of artillery shelling in the region since June 15, according to CPT data.
While Turkey has maintained that it desires to establish a semi-permanent security buffer zone along its shared border with Iraq and Syria, security sources said that the intensity of the strikes was surprising given Ankara’s recent comments about easing military operations against Kurdish insurgents in Iraq.
Turkey’s decades-long counterinsurgency campaign against the PKK has seen it militarily violate the sovereignty of both Iraq and Syria on countless occasions, sometimes leading to tension with Baghdad and Damascus.
The PKK is considered a terrorist organization by not only Turkey but also many of its Western allies, including the United States and the European Union.