ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Turkey has deployed commando forces to the Haftanin area of the Kurdistan Region against suspected Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) positions in the area, the Turkish defense ministry announced in the early hours of Wednesday.
The ground operation, dubbed Operation Claw-Tiger, was being carried out due to "recently attempted increased harassment and attacks on our police station and base areas," the defense ministry statement read.
The ministry called Claw-Tiger "part of our legitimate defense rights arising from international law, oriented against the PKK and other terrorist elements."
Turkish commando entry into the Kurdistan Region was supported by the Air Force, ATAK helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs), the defense ministry said in a separate statement.
PKK-linked Firat News Agency described the commando attack as a "black operation".
Today's attacks come two days after Turkey announced the launch of Operation Claw-Eagle, a campaign of aerial bombardment targeting suspected PKK bases in the Makhmour, Qarachogh, Mount Qandil, Khuakurk, and Zap areas of the Kurdistan Region, as well as Shingal in northern Iraq's Nineveh province.
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In what local officials say is an unprecedented move by Ankara, Turkish airstrikes pounded the the Haji Omaran area on the Kurdistan Region's border with Iran on Tuesday.
Turkey regularly carries out airstrikes and ground operations in the Kurdistan Region, against what it says are positions belonging to the PKK, an armed group that fights for greater political rights for Kurds in Turkey.
A mayor of the Haftanin town of Batifa told Rudaw on Wednesday that the obstacles caused by the "relentless" violence of Turkey-PKK clashes means local officials are unable to assess losses.
"Because of the PKK-Turkey conflict, there are many villages where we cannot go to, to construct and extend services to them," Abdulsatar added.
Both Erbil and Baghdad have repeatedly called on Ankara to halt its attacks, and have demanded the PKK withdraw from their territory. Baghdad summoned its Turkish ambassador to protest the airstrikes on Tuesday, issuing him a formal memorandum, according to Iraq's foreign ministry.
"This invitation, like the previous ones, was a new occasion to emphasize that “we will continue to fight the PKK wherever it is, unless Iraq takes steps to end the PKK presence in its country,” Yildiz tweeted after the meeting.
This is a developing story...
