By Alper Sasmaz and Esra Tekin
ANKARA / ISTANBUL (AA) - Turkish security forces “neutralized” a total of 50 PKK/YPG terrorists in northern Iraq and northern Syria over the past week, near Türkiye’s border, said the country’s National Defense Ministry on Thursday.
“Fifty terrorists were neutralized in the past week. The total number of terrorists neutralized in northern Iraq and Syria since Jan. 1 has thus reached 2,013, with 1,017 in Iraq and 996 in northern Syria,” Rear Adm. Zeki Akturk, the ministry’s spokesman, told a weekly news conference in the capital Ankara.
Turkish authorities use the term “neutralize” to imply that the terrorists in question surrendered or were killed or captured.
In its nearly 40-year terror campaign against Türkiye, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the US, and the EU – has been responsible for the deaths of more than 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants. The YPG is the PKK’s Syrian offshoot.
PKK terrorists often hide out in northern Iraq to plot attacks in nearby Türkiye.
In northern Syria, YPG/PKK terrorists threaten the Turkish border while trying to harass and attack local Syrians and Turkish troops promoting stability in a region once dominated by terrorist groups, due to a power vacuum in conflict-torn Syria.
Akturk also said that 387 people, including 12 members of terrorist groups, were caught while attempting to cross the border illegally over the past week, while 1,667 others were prevented from crossing.
“The number of people apprehended while attempting to cross our borders illegally since Jan. 1, 2024 has risen to 10,478, and the number of people prevented from crossing the border has reached 76,989,” he said.