Turkey Kills 12 PKK Fighters in Southeast, Also Strikes Northern Iraq

Warplanes Bombard PKK Shelters, Arms Depots in Iraq

Turkey has reported at least 12 fighters from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) were killed in southeastern Turkey today in a series of attacks by military helicopters. The strikes took place in Sirnak Province, near the Syrian border.

Turkish officials reported the PKK fighters targeted were hit in the mountains, as they were traveling trough the Idil District, parts of which remain under military curfew, which makes them heavy targets for military strikes.

Those weren’t Turkey’s only attacks against the PKK either, as officials also reported airstrikes against Qandil, in northern Iraq near the Iranian border, where they targeted PKK shelters and arms depots in the area.

There were no reports of casualties out of northern Iraq yet, and figures on Turkish airstrikes across the border tend to be hard to come by. It can be assumed, however, that airstrikes against shelters occupied by PKK people, who withdrew to Iraq during the ceasefire with Turkey which ended late in 2015, probably resulted in some deaths.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.