MADRID, 24 May. (EUROPA PRESS) –
At least five Turkish soldiers have died and two others have been injured during a military operation against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) guerrillas in northern Iraq, the Turkish Defense Ministry reported on Tuesday.
The part offered by the Turkish authorities does not provide more details of what happened, except to provide the names of both the fatalities and the wounded, in addition to informing that “land and air operations continue.”
“We wish God’s mercy for our martyrs,” says the brief statement in which condolences are sent to the families of the deceased and best wishes for recovery for the injured.
A day earlier, the Turkish authorities reported the death of six suspected PKK guerrillas, including one of its leaders, as part of the group’s operations in the Majmur, Kirkuk and Suleimaniya regions of northern Iraq.
The alleged leader, identified as Mehmet Erdogan, alias ‘Ahmet Rubar’, was killed in Mosul on May 21, according to the Demirören news agency on Monday. The authorities accuse him of “attempting to overthrow the constitutional order” and “disturbing the unity and territorial integrity of the State.”
This new attack by the Turkish forces against the PKK, considered a terrorist group by Ankara as well as by Washington and Brussels, began in the middle of last month. This Monday also, the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said that a new operation could be launched in northern Syria against the Kurdish militias of the Popular Protection Units (YPG).
The YPG, which Turkey considers the Syrian affiliate of the PKK guerrillas, are in turn the backbone of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), key in the fight against the Islamic State in this country.
One of the reasons why Turkey has justified its reluctance to allow Sweden and Finland to join NATO –due to the war in Ukraine– is the alleged links that both Nordic countries maintain with these two Kurdish organizations to which accused of protecting