Key Takeaways
- The PKK conflict with Turkey reignited in 2015 after decades of armed conflict.
- The organisation seeks an independent Kurdish state, including on Turkish territory.
- PKK militants were armed with US-made carbines in northern Iraq, where Turkish forces neutralised them.
Ankara: The militants of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK, banned in Turkey as a terrorist organisation) that were neutralised by the Turkish armed forces in northern Iraq were armed with US-made carbines M4, the same weapon as used by the militants who attempted to attack the Turkish Interior Ministry building in October, Turkish newspaper Yeni Safak reported on Thursday.
On Saturday night, six Turkish soldiers were killed in northern Iraq as a result of an armed attack by PKK militants. Six more soldiers died later in the day in attacks by Kurdish militants in the zone of Turkey’s Operation Claw-Lock in Iraq, forcing Turkey to launch another operation against the PKK. On Sunday morning, Turkey’s top military commanders arrived at the border with Iraq.
The report said that M4 carbines were in service with many foreign troops and were also used by the PKK and its military wing, the Kurdish People’s Protection Units.
The PKK conflict with Turkey began in 1984 and reignited in 2015. The organisation seeks an independent Kurdish state, including on Turkish territory. They have established bases in Iraqi and Syrian territories near the Turkish border, where Turkey’s Armed Forces target them with land and air strikes.
