Istanbul/Beirut, Nov. 26, (dpa/GNA) – Turkish forces have attacked positions of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Syria and Iraq, the Turkish Defence Ministry said on Tuesday.
Turkey carried out attacks on Monday and Tuesday on PKK positions in northern Iraq, and in northern Syria on the YPG Kurdish militia, which Ankara sees as allied to the PKK, the ministry said on X.
Syrian Kurdish fighters on Monday attacked a Turkey-allied militia base in northern Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a war monitoring group, told dpa.
Turkey controls swathes of land in Syria`s north, backed by loyal groups, following several incursions there since 2016.
Seven members of the pro-Turkish militiamen were killed while 12 others were wounded in Monday`s attack, according to the observatory. It also reported civilian casualties, including two children.
The exchange of fire continued in the area on Tuesday, according to dpa sources.
A total of 17 militants had been “neutralized” in Iraq and Syria since Monday, Turkey’s Defence Ministry said, vowing to continue the fight “against terrorism.”
The PKK, banned as a terrorist organization in Turkey, the European Union and the United States, has been fighting the Turkish state since the 1980s.
The group claimed responsibility for an attack last month at a flagship defence firm in Ankara that left five people dead, triggering a days-long response of strikes on alleged PKK sites in Iraq and Syria.
GNA