Status: 02/02/2022 12:11 p.m
Turkish warplanes have attacked targets of Kurdish fighters in Iraq and northern Syria. According to the Turkish Defense Ministry, there were several deaths. Ankara justified the attacks with self-defense.
Turkey says it has bombed positions of Kurdish militias in northern Syria and northern Iraq in a new air offensive. Among other things, shelters and ammunition depots were hit, said the Ministry of Defense in Ankara.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which is close to the opposition, at least four people were killed in northeastern Syria. According to the Turkish Defense Ministry, the military operation was directed against the banned Kurdish Workers’ Party PKK and against the Kurdish militia YPG in Syria, both of which Turkey classifies as terrorist organizations.
Turkey: Several extremists “neutralized”
Ankara justified the air strikes with self-defense. According to the Ministry of Defence, the attacks were intended to prevent “terrorist attacks against our people and security forces”. Several extremists have been “neutralized,” said Defense Minister Hulusi Akar. Among them are people who were wanted by Turkey. Kurdish groups initially did not comment on this.
In Europe and the US, only the PKK is classified as a terrorist organization. The Kurdish militias in Syria, on the other hand, are allies of the United States in the fight against the terrorist militia Islamic State (IS). The four people were killed during the night as a result of a drone attack on a power plant in the northeast Syrian city of Derik, the observatory said. There are also numerous injuries. Positions of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), led by the Kurdish militia YPG, are near the power plant. Due to the attack, the electricity in the surrounding villages failed.
Conflict with PKK since 1984
Turkey has repeatedly conducted military operations against the PKK in Iraq and against the Kurdish militia YPG in Syria. In the past, the scientific service of the Bundestag had doubted whether similar missions were compatible with international law. The headquarters of the PKK is in the northern Iraqi Kandil Mountains. Ankara has repeatedly taken military action against their positions in south-eastern Turkey. The PKK, in turn, carries out attacks. The conflict, which has been going on since 1984, has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people. A ceasefire failed in the summer of 2015.