Turkey launches new operation against PKK

Turkey today launched military operation “Kapan” in an effort to eliminating PKK (Kurdistan Worker’s Party) fighters from the country’s south, the interior ministry announced.

The gendarmerie command launched the counter-terrorism operation in the rural area of Hakkari province, the interior ministry said in a statement published on its official webpage.

A total of 825 security personnel, including gendarmerie and police forces, are taking part in the operation.

So far, four shelters have been identified and 17 improvised explosive device, three hand-grenades, a Kalashnikov rifle and a large quantity of daily use data-x-items destroyed.
With more than a 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK, listed as a terrorist organisation by Ankara, the UK, the US and EU, continued to conduct terrorist attacks in Turkey and against Turkish interests outside of the country.

Turkey has also been fighting what it says is the PKK’s Syrian offshoot, the People’s Protection Units (YPG) which heads the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in neighbouring Syria. SDF forces have been backed by Washington during thier fight against Daesh.

In October last year, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged the US to hand over the SDF Chief Mazlum Abdi, insisting he was a “wanted terrorist”.