ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday said that his country will have “largely completed fortifications” in the Kurdistan Region’s mountainous areas in the summer, adding that Ankara will take more “effective measures.”
"During the summer months, we will have largely completed our fortifications in the Operation Claw region, allowing us to take far more effective measures," Erdogan said after chairing a cabinet meeting in Ankara.
Operations Claw are a series of military operations by the Turkish army in the mountainous areas of the Kurdistan Region targeting positions of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), aiming to eradicate the group. The first iteration of Operation Claw was launched in May 2019, and was then followed by Operation Claw-Tiger in 2020. The third iteration of the offensive, launched in April 2021, consisted of two simultaneous cross-border campaigns, a ground campaign and air campaign, dubbed Operation Claw-Lightning and Operation Claw-Thunderbolt. A year later, Turkey launched Operation Claw-Lock.
"We will continue to crush the heads of members of the terrorist organization [PKK] wherever we find them and wipe out the infrastructure built for this purpose,” Erdogan said.
Turkey has recently upped its attacks against the PKK in the Kurdistan Region. It has also intensified its targeting of Kurdish fighters in northern Syria due to their alleged ties with the PKK.
Kurdish civilians and rights organizations have criticized Turkey’s military campaign as civilian lives and property are frequently caught in the crossfire.
In December, the PKK killed 12 Turkish soldiers in the Kurdistan Region within 24 hours, Turkey responded with retaliatory strikes on 29 locations in Iraq and northeast Syria (Rojava). The Turkish defense ministry claimed in a statement it targeted “caves, shelters, oil facilities, and warehouses” where PKK fighters were present.
Last month Turkey carried out several airstrikes on energy and civilian infrastructure in northeast Syria (Rojava) and alleged PKK targets in the Kurdistan Region a day after at least nine Turkish soldiers were killed by the group.
A Human Rights Watch report on Friday said that Turkey must stop the targeting of critical infrastructure in Rojava, calling for urgent action to address water, fuel, and health care crises that have resulted from the Turkish airstrikes.
The Turkish president said that eliminating what he labeled as “terrorism” was “also important for the Development Road Project we plan to put into effect with Iraq," referring to the multi-billion dollar road and rail project stretching from its southern Iraqi shores to the border with Turkey in the north.
Drone hits Qamishli
On the same evening of Erdogan's speech, a suspected Turkish drone hit a vehicle in Qamishli city, Rojava.
Media affiliated to the Kurdish administration reported injuries following what they described as the “Turkish” attack which hit a populated neighbourhood.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said one person was killed and another was injured in the “Turkish” drone attack, noting that it recorded 64 Turkish airstrikes in Rojava this year.
Ankara has yet to comment on the strike.
Video captured from a surveillance camera
— MOHAMMAD HASAN (@MHJournalist) February 12, 2024
a car being targeted in the city of #Qamishli. At least one person was killed #NESyria pic.twitter.com/V9wi9K89Uz
The Women’s Protection Units (YPJ), the all-woman branch of the People’s Protection Units (YPG), said on Monday that two of its fighters were killed in a Turkish drone attack in Qamishli the previous day.
The YPG is the backbone of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
The Kurdish-led SDF on Sunday announced the death of six of its fighters in a “Turkish” attack in Manbij city two days prior.
Updated at 11:31 pm