SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Turkish defense minister Hulusi Akar on Sunday announced the completion of the second phase of “Operation Claw-Eagle” launched in the Kurdistan Region’s province of Duhok.
Akar paid a visit to an operations center on the border in Sirnak province in southeastern Turkey on Sunday, according to the Turkish defense ministry.
“The operation has been completed. Our land and air elements returned to their bases and barracks safely,” Akar said at the operations center.
He added that 48 PKK fighters were “neutralized” and two others were detained during the operation in Gara region, 50 km northeast of Duhok.
The Turkish military launched the operation dubbed “Claw-Eagle 2” against the PKK on the Gara Mountain on Wednesday. Three Turkish soldiers were killed and three others were wounded during the operation, according to the Turkish defense ministry.
The region was “mostly cleared of the terror group during the extremely special and critical operation in the Gara region,” said Akar, adding that more than 50 targets, including ammunition depots, caves and bases were destroyed.
Akar also said the forces had found 13 Turkish citizens dead in a cave, which he said held by the PKK on the Gara mountain.
“All of the terrorists in the cave that martyred our citizens were neutralized,” he noted.
Ankara intermittently carries out airstrikes and artillery shelling against suspected positions of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) on the Kurdistan Region’s border areas with Turkey and Iran.
Turkey has conducted numerous ground and aerial cross-border offensives into neighboring northern Iraq to attack PKK fighters, who maintains bases in the region.
The operation came after Akar paid a visit to Baghdad and Erbil in January.
“Cooperation and coordination against the PKK terrorist group play a very important role. We are ready for every possible coordination with Iraq,” Akar said.
