Turkey says it has launched a military operation against Kurdish militants in a mountainous area of northern Iraq.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the Defense Ministry said that
the campaign, dubbed “Operation Claw,” kicked off in Iraq’s Hakurk
region at 8 p.m. local time (1700 GMT) on Monday.
Over the past hours, artillery fire and airstrikes have targeted
shelters and ammunition depots belonging to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party
(PKK), the statement said, adding that the bombardment had been
followed by the deployment of Turkish commando brigades, T-129 ATAK
helicopters, and drones.
“This operation aims to demolish the caves and shelters that are
being used by terrorist groups and to eliminate terrorists,” it said.
“The operation, with the support of our attack helicopters, is
continuing as planned.”
The Defense Ministry also published photos showing shells fired by
howitzers and soldiers on ridges as well as footage of helicopters and
commandos disembarking from them on mountainous terrain.
Defense Minister Hulusi Akar and senior military officials directed
the military campaign at the Command and Operation Center at the Turkish
General Staff headquarters in Ankara. Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar (C) and top generals
of the armed forces direct a military campaign in northern Iraq, at the
Command and Operation Center at the Turkish General Staff headquarters
in Ankara, Turkey, on May 27, 2019.
The PKK has been fighting for autonomy inside Turkey for decades.
Ankara says the group runs secret bases in neighboring Syria and Iraq.
The air force has been carrying out operations against the PKK in
Turkey’s troubled southeastern border region as well as in northern Iraq
and neighboring Syria.
In fact, no ideology has been as genocidal as Islam… Islam has killed more than 5 times the number of people killed by communism. In the total numbers we have updated over 80 million Christians killed by Muslims in 500 years in the Balkan states, Hungary, Ukraine, Russia. Then we have India. The official estimate number of Muslim slaughters of Hindus is 80 million. However, Muslim historian Firistha (b. 1570) wrote (in either Tarikh-i Firishta or the Gulshan-i Ibrahim) that Muslims slaughtered over 400 million Hindus up to the peak of Islamic rule of India, bringing the Hindu population down from 600 mil to 200 million at the time. With these new additions the Muslim genocide of non-Muslims since the birth of Mohammed would be over 669 million murders. Islam: The Religion of Genocide Perspective: Think the Spanish inquisition was bad? More people are killed by Islamists each year than in all 350 years of the Spanish Inquisition* combined. The Spanish inquisition ( Tri...
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