Turkey targets Kurdish fighters in Iraq and Syria

Breaking News : Turkey targets Kurdish fighters in Iraq and Syria

Air strikes kill at least 24 Kurdish fighters in Iraq and Syria, Turkish officials say, in fresh offensive against PKK.

Turkish military jets have carried out air strikes against Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) fighters in northern Iraq and northeast Syria, killing at least 24 people, Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency said.

A statement released by Turkey's air force said that it carried out the air strikes against PKK targets located in the Sinjar Mountain region in northern Iraq, and in Karachok mountains in northeastern Syria on Tuesday.

The targets were hit to prevent the PKK from sending "terrorists, arms, ammunition and explosives to Turkey," the statement said, adding that the operation was conducted "within the scope of the international law".

The PKK are Kurdish fighters operating in Turkey, while the Rojava Defence Units (YPG) are Kurdish fighters operating in Northern Syria and the Peshmerga fighters are in charge of security in Iraqi Kurdistan. The three groups are currently fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

At least six people were killed, five from the Peshmerga and a sixth from Asayish (Rojava)," Lieutenant General Jabbar Yawar, secretary-general of the Peshmerga ministry in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish government, told AFP news agency.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group which tracks the Syrian war, said that at least 18 YPG fighters were killed in the air strikes in Syria's Hasakah province.

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The YPG in Northern Syria, said on their Twitter account that Turkish war planes targeted the headquarters of the General Command of the YPG in Mount Karachok near the city of Derik in Hasakah province.

The YPG also reported that a media centre, a local radio station, communication headquarters and some military institutions were also hit.

The group forms a key component of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and have been closing in on ISIL in Raqqa.

The PKK established a presence in Iraq's Sinjar after coming to help the region's Yazidi population when ISIL overran the area in the summer of 2014.

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Al Jazeera's Hashem Ahebarra, reporting from Gaziantep on the Turkey-Syria border, said the air strikes come at a moment of strained ties between Turkey and Iraq.

"The Turkish ministry says the air strikes were precise and successful. The Turkish military tipped up its campaign against the PKK on the border area and said it killed a dozen PKK fighters in the past days."

Turkey sent tanks into the town of Bashiqa in northern Iraq in 2015, saying it was providing military assistance and training for the Peshmerga fighters against ISIL, Ahebarra explained.

"The Iraqi government, on the other hand, has been asking the Turkish government to pull out the tanks threatening more confrontations," he added.

The PKK is designated a "terrorist group" by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

Details:

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/04/turkey-targets-kurdish-fighters-iraq-syria-170425081224935.html