Turkish jets pounded 16 targets belonging to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq for a second day on Tuesday, the military General Staff said on its website. According to news agencies, the authorities imposed curfews in the Tekel, Mescit and Konak neighborhoods to carry out an operation to fill in trenches dug by the Patriotic Revolutionist Youth Movement (YDG-H) and remove the barricades they had erected. After a suicide bombing in Suruç in Şanlıurfa province, killed 33 activists and injured 100 more on July 20, clashes involving the PKK have grown in number.
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Kurdish rebels launched an armed campaign for greater autonomy in southeastern Turkey in 1984 and the conflict has since claimed 45,000 lives.
Separately, two men were shot dead in clashes between police and members of the PKK youth wing, one of the group’s most radical elements, in the town of Yuksekova, near the Iranian border, the sources said.
Monday’s (local time) air strikes targeted PKK bases in the Kurdish-dominated southeastern province of Hakkari near the Iraqi border, as well as several regions in northern Iraq including their main stronghold on Qandil mountain.
The brief military statement said the aerial operation took place on Monday.
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The mandate envisages the possibility of presence of foreign troops on the country’s territory and their use at the discretion of the Turkish government when needed.
