A Bayraktar TB2 combat drone. Source: Baykar.
Turkish fighter jets and combat drones have carried out a new series of airstrikes on targets of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region.
On October 4, a series of Turkish airstrikes targeted positions of the PKK, which is designated by Turkey as a terrorist group, in the districts of Sharbazher and Penjwen in the Sulaymaniyah province. One of the airstrikes hit a vehicle of the group near the town of Zalani, killing at least two Kurdish fighters.
The next day, on October 5, more airstrikes hit PKK positions in Sharbazher and Penjwen. However, no casualties were reported this time.
On October 6, a drone strike hit the district of Choman in Erbil province without causing any losses. The exact target of the strike is yet to be revealed.
The Turkish military has been conducting a large-scale operation against the PKK in Kurdistan since mid-April. The operation, codenamed Claw-Lock, is meant to neutralize the remaining cells of the guerilla group in the areas of Metina, Zap and Avashin Basyan.
Ankara stepped up its strikes on the PKK late in September after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launched its own operation against Kurdish-Iranian opposition groups in Kurdistan.
Both Turkey and Iran appears to be determined to go on with their military operations against guerilla groups in Kurdistan. However, it is not clear yet if the two sides are coordinating against these groups, which share the same goals and ideology.
