Turkey's military has said its warplanes hit 12 Kurdish rebel targets in cross-border raids in northern Iraq. It comes as the Turkey's defense minister said it would not stop until all rebel groups were removed.
A Turkish Air Forces warplane takes off from Incirlik Air Base in Adana, southern Turkey, in April 201Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/E. Gurel
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The Turkish military on Tuesday said its jets hit 12 Kurdish rebel sites overnight, including shelters, weapon positions and ammunition depots used by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in northern Iraq's Hakurk, Avasin-Basyan and Qandil regions.
The Qandil mountain region is where Turkey claims that the senior PKK leadership has its headquarters.
Turkey has been broadening its operations in its southern neighbor and has vowed to destroy a stronghold of the militant fighters.
The army also said that 34 militants had been "neutralized" in operations in northern Iraq between June 1 and 8. "Neutralized” is a term the military uses to refer to operations in which opposition forces have been killed, wounded or captured.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is facing presidential elections on June 24, on Monday said Turkey would drain the "terror swamp" in Qandil.
Kirkuk: Who's fighting in Iraq's Kurdish-controlled province?
From Shiite militias to Turkey's outlawed PKK, armed groups are fighting for power in Iraqi Kurdistan's oil-rich province of Kirkuk. DW examines who's who in the dispute as tensions rise in the Middle East nation.
Image: picture-alliance/abaca
Battle for Kirkuk
Only a few shots were fired, but Iraq's decision to send in armed forces into the Kurdish-controlled province of Kirkuk and bring it back into the fold has heightened tensions in the Middle East nation. Who's on who's side? And where is the territorial dispute going? DW takes a look at the actors and their motives.
Image: Reuters/Stringer
Iraq's army
In 2014, Kurdish forces went into Kirkuk to fill in the void left behind after Iraq's army collapsed from the "Islamic State's" military campaign. But three years later, the Iraqi military has been rebuilt and ridden a wave of victories against the notorious militant group. They're the main instrument of hard power for the Iraqi government as Baghdad fights for control of the oil-rich province.
Image: Reuters/Stringer
Shiite-dominated Popular Mobilization Units
Even during the liberation of Mosul, the Iraqi army was backed by the Popular Mobilization Units – an alliance of mostly Shiite militias. The Popular Mobilization Units joined the Iraqi army when it advanced on Kurdish-controlled positions in and around the city of Kirkuk. Kurdish politicians have lashed at the units, saying they're serving Iran's goal to destabilize the region.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/A. Al-Rubaye
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK)
The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) is one of the main opposition political parties in Iraqi Kurdistan. Since the first Gulf War, the PUK has jointly administered Iraqi Kurdistan with the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). Both the PUK and KDP have their own peshmerga forces. In Kirkuk, PUK peshmerga fled the city, leaving it virtually unopposed to Iraqi forces.
Image: picture-alliance/AA/H. Baban
Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP)
The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) led by Iraqi Kurdistan President Masoud Barzani is the ruling political party in Iraqi Kurdistan's parliament. Despite warnings from the central government, it was the KDP's Barzani who vowed to move forward on the independence referendum, infuriating Baghdad. KDP peshmerga fighters – like the PUK fighters – fled Kirkuk when Iraqi forces advanced on the city.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/B. Janssen
The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)
The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) was born in the 1970s out of an ambitious dream to create a Marxist-Leninist state in the Middle East to be called Kurdistan. In the 1980s, the group launched a bloody insurgency against the state of Turkey. While considered unwelcome in Iraq, the PKK has links with Iraq's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) – and likely appeared in Kirkuk to back them.
Image: picture-alliance/AA
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Turkey to remain in Iraq
Defense Minister Nurettin Canikli said Turkey had strengthened its military bases in northern Iraq and that they would stay in the area until the PKK stops being a threat to Turkey.
Canikli denied that Turkey's operations against Qandil were aimed at stoking nationalist sentiment ahead of the country's June 24 elections.
Canikli said Turkey would remain in northern Iraq until all terrorist groups were removed, amid increasing government warnings of a military operation against Kurdish militants based in the Qandil mountains.
Canikli made the comment at a roundtable interview with the state-run Anadolu news agency, where he also said Turkey had offered to carry out a potential operation into Qandil with Iran, who has voiced support for the offensive. He said Turkey was in full agreement with Baghdad on the operation.
