Alwaght- Turkey's warplanes have conducted airstrikes inside Iraq targeting Kurdish militants despite Baghdad’s opposition to such incursions which violate the country’s sovereignty.
The Turkish General Staff said in a statement that the country’s air force destroyed PKK camps in northern Iraq early Tuesday. The statement added that air raids on camps in Metina, Zap, Avasin-Basyan and Gara led to the destruction of three caves and four bunkers.
Last month, Iraqi Prime Minister Haydar al Abadi condemned Turkish air strikes on Kurdish regions in northern Iraq and called the move as “the violation of international law and the Iraqi sovereignty”.
Iraqi government spokesman Saad al-Hadithi was also quoted last April as saying, “Turkish air strikes in northern Iraq is negatively affecting the efforts of Iraq and the international community in the war against terrorism,”
Turkey claims that the PKK, which has carried out a three-decade insurgency against the Turkish state, has camps in the mountains of northern Iraq.
A shaky ceasefire between the PKK, which has been calling for an autonomous Kurdish region since 1984, and the Turkish government collapsed in July 2015. Attacks on Turkish security forces have soared ever since.
Over the past few months, Turkish ground and air forces have been carrying out operations against the PKK positions in the country’s troubled southeastern border region as well as northern Iraq and Syria.
