The newest phase of Operation Claw, which began yesterday, will focus on places the Kurdish militants are hiding in the Sinat-Haftanin part of the Kurdistan Region near the Turkish border, according to the Turkish Defense Ministry.
“The operation is to ensure the security of the borders in the future and to destroy the terrorists in Sinat-Haftanin region [in Kurdistan Region] and their caves and shelters,” said the ministry in a statement.
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) is a Kurdish armed group fighting for greater political and cultural rights for Turkey’s Kurds. The group has been in conflict with the Turkish state since 1984, resulting in the deaths of over 40,000 people from both sides, including civilians.
The PKK has long based itself in the Qandil Mountains in the Kurdistan Region along the border with Turkey and Iran. Fighting resumed between the PKK in Turkey after peace talks in 2015 failed following a two-and-a-half year peace process. Turkey regularly bombs apparent PKK targets in the Kurdistan Region. Hundreds of villages near the border have been abandoned as a result.
The first phase of Operation Claw began on May 27, followed by a second phase described as a “follow-up” operation on July 12. The first two phases were in the Khakurk region northeast of Erbil near the Turkish and Iranian borders.
Turkey has not announced the end of any of Operation Claw’s phases.
Turkey regularly uses fighter jets to hit the PKK in the Kurdistan Region, but Operation Claw utilizes ground forces as well. The latest phase is supported by Turkey’s air force, army aviation forces, tanks and armed drones, the Turkish Defense Ministry said.
The Turkish Interior Minister, Suleyman Soylu, claimed on Thursday that their forces have “neutralized” 635 PKK fighters only in 2019 in over 80,000 operations. Ankara uses the word “neutralized” to refer to those killed, wounded, or otherwise removed from the battlefield.
"We've been combating PKK terror for 40 years. We have neutralized 635 PKK terrorists in 80,570 operations since the start of this year," Soylu told reporters in the capital Ankara, according to the state-run Anadolu Agency (AA).
Anadolu Agency also reported today that Turkish army and intelligence forces "neutralized" four PKK fighters in Gara region.
Turkey, as well as the US and EU, consider the PKK a terrorist organization.
The Turkish military is also involved in heavy clashes with the PKK in some Kurdish provinces in east and southeast Turkey. It launched Operation Kiran on Wednesday in the Van, Hakkari and Sirnak provinces against the PKK.
Turkey has intensified attacks on the group recently, leading to the deaths of some senior commanders. It has utilized sophisticated, modern technology to track PKK positions in Kurdistan Region, making one of the PKK’s goals to work for “modernization” of its fighters.
“We want to fully modernize, reinvigorate and professionalize guerrillas who should be capable of prevailing over the enemy’s intelligence and techniques,” Murat Karayilan, a member of PKK’s executive body, told the party-affiliated Sterk TV a week ago.
