Turkish air strikes hit PKK

ANKARA

Turkish security sources are claiming that a wave of air strikes this week has killed at least 55 PKK terrorists as well as destroying hideouts and depots in northern Iraq.

Sources claimed aerial strikes on Sep. 15 destroyed “PKK hideouts, well-protected shelters, logistic and ammunition depots and aboveground shelters."

They added that initial reports compiled through records of radio traffic, informants in the region and aerial photos showed that at least 55 terrorists were killed.

As Iraqi border police do not allow the PKK to transfer wounded militants and corpses by road, they try to carry away bodies by mountain routes.

Sources claimed that since PKK terrorists do not get help from people in the region and Iraqi police, they had to bury corpses in a mass grave.

Security sources claimed PKK efforts at an uprising in Yuksekova, a district in southeastern Hakkari, and Cizre, a district in southeastern Sırnak province, plus Sur, a district in southeastern Diyarbakir, had failed.

They claimed Kurdish people stood with the Turkish state.

Following a suicide bomb attack in July -- blamed on Daesh -- in the southeastern province of Sanliurfa that killed over 30 people, the terrorist PKK organization has renewed armed attacks especially targeting Turkish military and police forces.

Since July, more than 100 members of the security forces have been martyred and hundreds of PKK terrorists killed in operations across Turkey and northern Iraq, including airstrikes.

Security forces are also claiming to have intercepted a note containing evaluations and instructions issued by PKK leader Murat Karayilan.

Karayilan reportedly said terrorists belonging to the Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement, or YDG-H, have been defeated, adding that militants should stop saying that YDG-H is related to PKK.

“We cannot take shelter in Qandil [PKK’s headquarter in northern Iraq]. We tried to manage things with 600-700 militants. Our logistic and ammunition are next to nothing. There are traitors amongst us; that’s why Turkish warplanes destroyed well-protected shelters and depots. We lost too many people. We need to recall our forces in Syria. We do not have qualified militants. We lost too many people in Tunceli [an eastern province]. It is impossible to compensate,” Karayilan allegedly said in the memo.