Turkish warplanes pounded Kurdish areas in the southeastern Hakkari Province today, hammering mountainous areas which are used as a base of operations for the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), an insurgency which they’ve been fighting for decades.
The strikes came in the wake of another round of attacks by the PKK. An IED detonated against a military vehicle early in the morning killed two soldiers and wounded another. A second PKK attack killed another soldier and wounded one more. Both incidents were in neighboring Sirnak Province. The PKK also attacked a police station in Hakkari Province.
Turkey and the PKK had been engaged in this war on and off since 1983. The two sides entered a ceasefire in 2013, and while the EU expressed “concern” about the latest fighting’s impact on peace efforts that began during that ceasefire, both sides have indicated they believe that the peace talks are over at any rate.
The fighting inside Turkey has centered entirely around the southeast so far, near the Iraq border. Turkish warplanes have also attacked northern Iraq several times, targeting villages where the PKK is believed to be operating. This has fueled condemnation from Iraqi and Iraqi Kurd officials.