Turkey vows further strikes against Kurdish militants in Iraq, Syria

ISTANBUL – Turkey says it will continue to target suspected positions of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Iraq and northern Syria, in response to Friday’s attack that killed nine soldiers at a Turkish base in Iraq.

“Our struggle will continue until the last remaining terrorist is neutralized and the terror swamps in Iraq and Syria are drained,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s office said on Saturday.

As many as 45 Kurdish militants were “neutralized” in an ongoing offensive in Iraq and Syria’s north, the office said, using a term often used to refer to militants killed or captured.

The statement follows a security meeting chaired by Erdogan in Istanbul.

The PKK targeted a military base in Iraq’s north late Friday, killing at least nine Turkish soldiers and wounding four others, according to the Defense Ministry in Ankara.

Turkish retaliatory airstrikes then hit suspected PKK shelters and oil facilities, the ministry said on the social media platform X. Friday’s clash with the PKK was the second deadliest in three weeks in an area where Ankara had launched a ground and air operation in 2022.

Overnight, a total of 113 suspects accused of PKK links were detained in raids across 32 Turkish cities and provinces, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on X.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the decadeslong conflict between the Turkish state and the PKK, which is considered a terrorist organization by the European Union and the United States.

Turkey sees the PKK as a national security threat. Ankara controls areas in northern Syria and has military bases in Iraq’s north in a bid to push alleged PKK and affiliated groups from its border.