Twelve soldiers were killed in two separate attacks on Turkish military bases in northern Iraq on Friday and Saturday, the ministry said in a statement.
“29 targets including caves, bunkers, shelters, oil installations and warehouses were destroyed during the operation which took place around 10 pm,” the ministry said in a statement posted on its digital page. [19 horas em Lisboa] December 23rd”.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH) reported on Saturday night that two oil facilities in northeastern Syria near the Turkish border were attacked and there were no casualties.
Early Saturday morning, the Turkish Ministry of Defense announced the death of 12 brave comrades (…) who were martyred in a clash with terrorists trying to infiltrate a base in the “Operation Close Claw” area.
Ankara earlier announced that six more soldiers were killed in an attack reported Friday night in northern Iraq and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a Kurdish guerrilla group in Turkey and considered a “terrorist group” by the Turkish government. and Western Allies.
According to Turkish media, the Turkish military bases that were attacked on Friday and Saturday are located in Hakurg and Zab.
On Saturday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed that “treacherous separatists will be held accountable for the blood they have spilled” and pledged to “resolutely continue our strategy to eliminate terrorism at its source until the last terrorist is destroyed.”
The Turkish Armed Forces, NATO's second-largest military force, continue to conduct ground and air military operations against PKK militants and their positions in northern Iraq, autonomous Kurdistan, or the mountainous region of Sinjar.
Over the past 25 years, Turkey has established dozens of military bases in Iraqi Kurdistan to fight Turkish Kurdish guerrillas.
The PKK, which launched an armed insurgency against Ankara in 1984, claimed responsibility for an attack on the Turkish Interior Ministry headquarters in Ankara last October that wounded two police officers and killed two attackers.
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