Turkey targets 'terrorists' in Iraq and Syria after death of 12 soldiers

ANKARA – Turkey launched air operations “against terrorist targets in the north of Syria and Iraq”, its defence ministry said on Dec 23, after 12 of its soldiers were killed over two days.

It added that “29 targets, including caves, bunkers, shelters, oil installations and warehouses, were destroyed”.

An AFP correspondent and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported strikes on Dec 23 evening against two oil sites in north-east Syria, near the Turkish border, without reporting any victims.

Two separate attacks on Turkish bases in northern Iraq killed a dozen soldiers.

Ankara has operated several dozen military posts in the area for the past 25 years in its decades-old war against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a group blacklisted by Turkey and many of its Western allies as a terrorist organisation.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Dec 23 called for retaliation against “terrorists” in northern Iraq and Syria.

“The blood of our soldiers has not been wasted, the separatist villains will be made to account for the blood they have shed,” he said.

“We will continue with a vengeance to implement our strategy to eliminate terrorism at its source until the last terrorist is eliminated.”

Ankara initially announced the deaths of six soldiers on Dec 23, who “fell martyred in a clash with terrorists”.

It also announced six other soldiers had been killed in northern Iraq in an earlier attack on the night of Dec 22, which it attributed to the PKK.

According to Turkish media reports, the attacks occurred near Hakurk and Zap.

In October, Mr Erdogan vowed to continue stepping up strikes on “terrorist” targets in Iraq and Syria.

The PKK claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on Oct 1 that injured two police officers in Ankara. AFP