Turkey has started a new military operation against the PKK in its northern strongholds in Iraq, following an escalation in the attacks that have recently caused civilian casualties.
The Turkish Ministry of Defense announced at dawn today, Monday, the launch of a continuous military operation, called "Eagle Claw", on Labor Party sites in the Sinjar, Qirgik, Qandil and other areas in northern Iraq, in response to what it called the increasing party attacks and its attempts to target border military sites.
The ministry said in a statement that the operation aims to guarantee the security of the borders of Turkey and its people by neutralizing the Labor Party and what it described as other terrorist elements, within the framework of the right to self-defense stemming from international law, according to the statement.
Kurdish sources confirmed to Al-Jazeera correspondent in Erbil that the sites of the PKK in Sinjar and Makhmour camp in the Iraqi Nineveh governorate were bombed by Turkish planes, without reporting casualties.
On the other hand, the Turkish Anadolu news agency said that Defense Minister Khulusi Akar and the commanders of the air, land and naval forces oversaw the management and leadership of Operation Eagle Military Claw at the Air Force Command Operations Center.
The operation comes a week after an improvised explosive device attack targeted a bus carrying workers at a road maintenance company in the state of Wan, in southeastern Turkey, killing two of them and wounding eight others.
Recently, Turkish forces carried out security operations in areas in the southeast of the country, killing and wounding militants from the PKK, while the authorities announced the arrest of another infiltrator from northern Syria to carry out a truck bomb attack. It is reported that Turkey, the United States and the European Union classify the PKK as a terrorist organization.