Turkish military says struck PKK targets in Iraq, Syria

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Turkish military bombed Kurdish militants in Iraq's Sinjar region and in northeastern Syria on Tuesday, April 25, widening a campaign against groups affiliated with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Reuters said.

The air strikes in Syria targeted the YPG - a key component of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which are backed by the United States and have been closing in on the Islamic State bastion of Raqqa.

The Turkish military said the aim of the strikes was to prevent the PKK from sending weapons and explosives for attacks inside Turkey.

"To destroy these terror hubs which threaten the security, unity and integrity of our country and our nation and as part of our rights based on international law, air strikes have been carried out ... and terrorist targets have been struck with success," the Turkish army said in a statement.

The air bombardment was carried out around 02.00 a.m. (7 p.m. ET), it added.

The YPG said in a statement its headquarters in Mount Karachok near Malikiya had been hit, including a media center, a local radio station, communications facilities and military institutions.

"This treacherous attack has led to the death and wounding of a number of our comrades," read a statement from the YPG general command.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group which tracks violence using sources on the ground, said three YPG fighters had been killed in the strikes.

Turkey's warplanes have regularly bombed the mountainous border area between Iraq and Turkey where PKK militants are based since a ceasefire broke down in July 2015, but it is the first time it has targeted its affiliate in the Sinjar region.

The PKK established a presence in Sinjar after coming to the aid of the region's Yazidi population when Islamic State militants overran the area and purged its Yazidi population in the summer of 2014.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has said he will not allow Sinjar, around 115 km (70 miles) from the Turkish border, to become a "new Qandil", referring to the PKK stronghold near the borders of Turkey, Iraq and Iran.

General Seme Bosali, a senior Kurdish military commander in Sinjar, said the air strike had killed five Kurdish peshmerga fighters. It appeared to be a mistake, he said, as the peshmerga forces are not hostile to Turkey.

Designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, the PKK has waged a three-decade insurgency against the Turkish state for Kurdish autonomy. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict.

In November, the Turkish army deployed tanks and armored vehicles to the border town of Silopi, around the time Iraqi forces supported by the United States launched an operation to drive Islamic State from the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

The government at the time said the move was to fortify Turkey's defenses against developments across its borders.