MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : ERDOGAN MOVES TOWARDS KANDIL PKK CAMP / NORTH IRAQ

Erdogan: Turkey Has Launched Anti-PKK Operation in Qandil, Sinjar

BasNews – 11/06/2018 – 17:05 – Kurdistan – Erdogan: Turkey Has Launched Anti-PKK Operation in Qandil, Sinjar

ERBIL – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed on Monday that his country has started an anti-PKK military operation in Qandil region and the Kurdish city of Sinjar, state-run media said.

Ankara views the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) as “a terrorist organization” they therefore have been in a military confrontation for over three decades which has so far left around 40,000 people dead from both sides.

“We’ve destroyed 14 important targets with our 20 aircrafts,” Anadolu Agency quoted Erdogan. “They [the warplanes] shot and returned but it has not finished yet. It will continue.”  He said that their target “is to drain the biggest swamp” in Qandil region.

The PKK’s main headquarters is in the mountain of Qandil, near the Iranian border where Turkish warplanes have lately carried out several strikes against the armed group.

Turkey in coordination with its backed Syrian rebels entered the Kurdish enclave of Afrin in mid-March after a nearly two months of air and ground military operation. Since then, the Turkish top official has repeatedly threatened to extend the operation to wherever the PKK fighters are present, including Qandil Mount and Sinjar. www.mesop.de