Turkey launches operations against Kurdish militants in northern Iraq

Turkey began the new week by launching a massive cross-border land and air attack against Kurdish insurgents in northern Iraq.

Along with artillery, T129B helicopters, drones, and F-16 jets, Turkey’s Special Forces and special commando groups were sent as part of the mission, which allegedly targeted PKK sites in northern Iraq’s Metina, Zap, and Avashin-Basyan districts.

The cross-border operation, dubbed Operation Claw Lock, occurred a day after Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu declared: “We will liberate Syria and Iraq from the US and Europe and restore peace.”

According to Zaed Ismail, a member of the scientific council of the Istanbul-based Academy of International Relations, the operation is in response to increased missile strikes against the Turkish base in Zilikan, Nineveh, and the PKK’s push into northern Iraq’s Sinjar region. It is also connected to Ankara’s current political interaction with Irbil.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish president, recently met in Irbil with Masrour Barzani, the prime minister of Iraq’s Kurdistan regional government.

According to experts, Sinjar is morphing into a PKK alternate headquarters.

“The military activities began around a week after Barzani’s visit to Ankara, indicating that security cooperation between Irbil and Ankara was necessary to initiate the military operation,” Ismail added.

According to Ismail, the PKK “began presenting a greater existential danger to the political stability of the whole geography of northern Iraq” by repeatedly attacking Irbil Airport with missiles.

The attack was coordinated with Turkey’s “friends and partners,” according to the Defense Ministry.

However, Ismail believes that resolving the conflict with airstrikes will be impossible until the international circumstances for a large ground operation are developed.

The operation, which began at 12 a.m., was initiated as Russia continued its invasion of Ukraine, while Western partners applauded Turkey’s mediation role.

Both the United States and the European Union have previously recognized the PKK as a terrorist organization.

According to Tuna Aygun, an Iraq specialist at the Ankara-based research tank ORSAM, the new operation was part of a prior attack, but this time Turkey was pursuing runaway PKK militants from the region’s eastern and western regions.

“For a period, the operating area served as a haven for PKK fighters. “Since 2017, the PKK has primarily concentrated its logistical and military capabilities in Iraq in order to attack targets in Turkey,” he told media.

“By building temporary military camps, Turkey hopes to exert control over terrorists’ travel routes based on the territory’s topographical characteristics,” Aygun explained.

However, it is unknown how long the military operation would go and if PKK fighters will be constrained in their movements.

“This is not going to be a one-day operation. However, with the rising employment of armed drones in such offensives, these maneuvers are no longer dependent on climatic circumstances,” Aygun explained. He noted that Baghdad and Irbil support Turkey’s new operation since it is viewed as a means of stabilizing an area where thousands of residents have been displaced in previous years owing to the PKK’s presence.