Turkish Armed Forces attacked and eliminated the PKK terror targets near the northwestern Syrian border, Turkey’s Defense Ministry revealed on Aug. 19.
The offensive move came as a retaliation to the attacks and harassment fire of the PKK/YPG militants on Turkish army officials on the area of the Operation Euphrates Shield, the ministry claimed.
Since 2016, Turkey has conducted two major military ops in northwestern Syria, Operations Euphrates Shield, and Olive Branch in order to collapse the boundary of terrorist groups ISIL and the YPG, which is the Syrian branch of the terrorist organization PKK.
Meanwhile, over 400 terror suspects are detained in 29 provinces across Turkey in operations against the PKK terror group, the Turkish Interior Ministry revealed on Monday.
A total of 418 suspects were detained across Turkey including in southeastern Diyarbakır, Mardin and eastern Van provinces, Turkey’s Interior Ministry said in a statement.
Operations are ongoing in the region, it added.
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The PKK listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU. In more than 3 decades of terror campaign against Turkey, it has been responsible for the deaths of nearly 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants.
Turkey also perceives the YPG as the Syrian offshoot of the PKK, which has been at war with the Turkish state for the last 41 years.
The YPG was established in 2004 as the armed wing for the Kurdish leftist Democratic Union Party. It expanded its boundaries and operations rapidly in the Syrian Civil War and end up dominating over other armed Kurdish groups.
A dispute between Turkey and the US over YPG:
In early 2015, the group won against, The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, ISIL at the Siege of Kobani and started receiving air and ground combat support from the United States and other coalition nations. Since then, the YPG has started fighting against ISIL, as well as against Syrian rebel groups, occasionally.
The YPG has been criticized by Turkey for its alleged support for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, especially after the rebellion movement in southern Turkey that began in 2015.