Türkiye conducts 'most comprehensive' operation in northern Iraq, Syria

By Diyar Guldogan

ANKARA (AA) – Türkiye has carried out "the largest and most comprehensive and effective" air operation in Iraq and Syria against the terrorists, the nation's defense minister said on Tuesday.

"Operation Claw-Sword, launched on Nov. 19 in northern areas of Iraq and Syria, has been the largest, most comprehensive and most effective air operation against the terrorist organization in the recent period," Hulusi Akar said during his address in parliament in the capital Ankara.

Türkiye launched early Sunday the Operation Claw-Sword, a cross-border aerial campaign against the terror group YPG/PKK that has illegal hideouts across the Iraqi and Syrian borders where they plan attacks on the Turkish soil.

Akar said that the operation only targeted the terrorists, adding: "With the operation, the dens of terrorists were destroyed and a great blow was dealt to the traitors who targeted the security of our country and nation."

"For us, there is no ethnic, religious or sectarian discrimination between terrorism and terrorists. Our only target is terrorists. Where the terrorist is, that is where our target is," he stressed.

Türkiye sees the PKK and the YPG as the same terrorist groups and has called on the countries, especially the US, to cut all support to the terrorists, Akar reiterated.

Since July 24, 2015, a total of 36,854 terrorists have been neutralized in Türkiye, northern Iraq and northern Syria, including 3,585 neutralized since the start of 2022, he said.

Türkiye's air operation followed the Nov. 13 terror attack on Istanbul's crowded Istiklal Avenue that killed six people and left 81 injured.

In its more than 35-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 terror group's Syrian offshoot.