A Bayraktar Akıncı combat drone. Source: the Turkish Ministry of National Defense.
Late on November 3, a Turkish combat drone targeted a vehicle of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the Yazidi town of Sinjar in northern Iraq.
The vehicle was completely destroyed as a result of the drone strike. The Directorate General of Counter Terrorism in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region said in a statement that the strike killed a fighter of the PKK and wounded at least two others.
The PKK is known to be present and active in Sinjar and other Yazidi areas in northern Iraq. The local Sinjar Resistance Units is considered a branch of the Kurdish guerilla group.
Click to see full-size image. Source: fb.com/KURDISTAN.CT
The Turkish military has been conducting an operation against the PKK in northern Iraq since April. The operation, codenamed Claw-Lock, is meant to neutralize the remaining cells of the guerilla group in the areas of Metina, Zap and Avashin Basyan in Kurdistan.
A day after the drone strike on Sinjar, The Turkish Ministry of National Defense acknowledged that another soldier was recently killed by PKK fighters in northern Iraq while taking part in Operation Claw Lock. The ministry identified the slain soldier as engineering specialist Corporal Lokman Akcaglayan.
The new casualty brought to 60 the number of Turkish troops killed in the northern Iraqi region since the beginning of Operation Claw-Lock.
Click to see full-size image. Source: the Turkish Ministry of National Defense.
The PKK escalated its attacks on Turkish forces in northern Iraq after the beginning of Operation Claw-Lock. In the last few days, the group released two videos documenting an attack that target a gathering of Turkish soldiers on Hakkari hilltop on September 6, and another that targeted a Turkish military vehicle in Amedi on October 18.
Operation Claw-Lock has inflicted some heavy human and material losses on the PKK, so far. Nevertheless, the group continues to carry out effective offensive and defensive operations in different parts of northern Iraq as evident by its recent attacks.
Ankara will not likely conclude Operation Claw-Lock before the end of the year, despite sustaining some losses and failing to achieve its goals.