Turkish counterterrorism operations have destroyed 709 hideouts, bunkers and depots used by the PKK terrorist group so far in 2024, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced Wednesday.
Raids dubbed “Gürz” have destroyed the PKK’s winter kits and explosives stashed in rural regions across southeastern provinces since Jan. 1, according to the minister.
“Air-backed Gürz operations, conducted by gendarmerie forces, intelligence officers, commandos and security rangers, will continue regularly until all terrorists are eliminated,” Yerlikaya said on X.
With no shelter in urban locations, the PKK takes advantage of mountainous territories in Türkiye’s southeast, where its members spend winter in remote caves.
Security forces seized 2,100 tons of chemical explosives reserved for bomb attacks, 617 kilograms of plastic explosives, 97 kilograms of TNT, some 194 mines and suicide bomber vests, as well as 99,936 munitions and cartridges of various sizes, 13,657 heavy weaponry munitions, 2,252 hand grenades, 63 rocket launchers, anti-aircraft equipment, mortars, flame throwers and guided missiles.
Turkish security forces regularly conduct counterterrorism operations in the eastern and southeastern provinces of Türkiye, where the PKK has attempted to establish a stronghold in its four-decade campaign of terror.
Strikes on the terrorist group have only intensified in the past week after a PKK attack on the Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) in Ankara that killed five and injured 22 people in October.
The PKK took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984 to achieve a so-called Kurdish self-rule in southeastern regions and is designated a terrorist organization by Ankara, as well as the United States and the European Union.
PKK violence was initially raging in rural regions of southeastern Türkiye, but the terrorists have moved a large chunk of operations to northern Iraq since 2019 after successive Turkish operations, but the group still has operatives within the country.
The PKK terrorists have their headquarters in Qandil, which sits roughly 40 kilometers (25 miles) southeast of the Turkish border in Irbil, the capital of northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG)-administered region.
The Defense Ministry separately on Wednesday announced nine PKK terrorists were eliminated in total in Hakurk and Gara regions of northern Iraq in airstrikes on Nov. 29-Dec. 1.
Türkiye has, over the past 25 years, operated several dozen military bases in northern Iraq in its war against the PKK and has been conducting airstrikes as part of “Claw” operations since 2022 to demolish terrorist lairs and prevent the formation of a terror corridor along its borders.
Until recently, Iraq has said the operations violate its sovereignty, but Ankara says it is protecting its borders where it intends to establish a 30-40 kilometer security corridor.
In August, the neighbors agreed to military cooperation, namely joint training and operation centers, against the terrorists, months after Baghdad declared the PKK a banned organization.
Türkiye, however, wants Iraq to recognize the PKK as a terrorist group fully.