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On September 23, a series of Turkish airstrikes, which were reportedly carried out by combat drones, hit the town of Grauzer in Sinjar district in the northern Iraqi province of Nineveh.
In a statement, the Kurdistan Region’s Directorate General of Counter Terrorism revealed that the airstrikes targeted a headquarters of the Sinjar Resistance Units, a Yazidi faction affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The security service said that the airstrikes on Grauzer resulted in “human and material losses,” without providing any further details.
The Turkish airstrikes were likely a response to a recent PKK attack that killed a Turkish service member and wounded two others in northern Iraq. The Turkish Ministry of National Defense acknowledged the losses on September 21.
In mid-April, the Turkish kicked off an operation in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region with the aim of neutralizing the PKK’s remaining cells in the areas of Metina, Zap and Avashin Basyan. The last casualty brought to 55 the number of Turkish troops killed in the region since the beginning of the large-scale operation.
The PKK sustained heavy losses as a result of the operation. The Turkish military claims that 371 fighters of the Kurdish guerilla group have been killed, wounded or captured, so far. Despite these losses, the group is still conducting effective offensive and defensive operations.
Operation Claw-Lock will likely go on for several more weeks, if not months. Ankara does not appear to be in a rush to conclude the operation.
