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Turkish forces eliminated four PKK/YPG terrorists in northern Iraq and Syria, the Defense Ministry said Sunday.
Three of the terrorists were eliminated in the Operation Claw Lock region in northern Iraq and the other in the Operation Euphrates Shield zone in northern Syria, the ministry said.
Separately, a member of the terrorist PKK/YPG trying to enter Türkiye from the border with Syria was nabbed in the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa.
After getting a tip that the terrorist would try to enter the country from Syria security forces beefed up measures on the frontier and made the capture, security sources said Sunday.
Judicial proceedings were initiated against the terrorist, said the sources, who asked not to be named as they were not authorized to speak to the media.
The terrorist PKK is known for using northern Iraq, near the Turkish border, as a hideout to plot terror attacks and for launching attacks both on nearby Türkiye and locals in northern Syria.
Türkiye’s cross-border attacks into northern Iraq have been a source of tension with its southeastern neighbor for years. Ankara has asked Iraq for more cooperation in combating the PKK, and Baghdad labelled the group a banned organization in March.
Last month President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan held talks with officials in Baghdad and Irbil, capital of Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), about the continued presence of the PKK in northern Iraq, where it is based, and other issues. Erdoğan later said he believed Iraq saw the need to eliminate the PKK as well.
Ankara battles the PKK’s Syrian offshoot, the YPG, in the country’s northern regions and conducted a trio of successful anti-terror operations there to prevent the formation of a terror corridor and enable the peaceful settlement of residents: Euphrates Shield (2016), Olive Branch (2018), and Peace Spring (2019).
In its nearly 40-year terror campaign against Türkiye, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the U.S., and EU – has been responsible for the deaths of more than 40,000 people, including women, children and infants.
