30 March 2017•Update: 30 March 2017
ANKARA
Turkish jets destroyed dozens of PKK targets in northern Iraq and southeastern Turkey, the military said on Thursday.
The Turkish General Staff said in a statement that the airstrikes were carried out Wednesday in the northern Iraqi regions of Zap, Hakurk, and Avasin-Basyan and in Turkey’s eastern Hakkari province.
Dozens of shelters, defense positions, and weapons used by the terror organization were destroyed and three terrorists were killed during the northern Iraq airstrikes, the statement added.
Turkey’s military frequently conducts air operations in northern Iraq as a result of intelligence reports from the region.
In separate operations inside the country, dozens of rifles and scores of rounds of ammunition and handmade explosives in the eastern provinces of Sirnak, Sanliurfa, Diyarbakir, and Bingol and southern Hatay were seized.
Two PKK terrorists were also killed in the eastern Van province when police conducted an operation on a house.
According to police sources, the terrorists were planning to conduct an attack inside the country.
The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S., and the EU.
More than 1,200 people, including security force personnel and civilians, have lost their lives since the PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S., and EU -- resumed its decades-old armed campaign in July 2015. The civilian casualties include many women and children.
Illegal cross-border attempts
Some 792 people were also captured while attempting to illegally cross into Turkey from Syria, the Turkish General Staff statement added.
Reporting by Yildiz Nevin Gundogmus and Necat Hazar; Writing by Nilay Kar
