Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan announced plans to strengthen the country’s newly established permanent military bases in northern Iraq in the upcoming months.
This decision followed the recent deaths of 12 Turkish soldiers in the region during conflicts with militants from the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Erdogan, during a televised address in Ankara, stated that in recent years Turkey has constructed extensive road networks in northern Iraq to support its permanent bases.
He added, “With the onset of spring, we will have finished building the infrastructure for our new bases in northern Iraq, effectively preventing terrorists from entering the area.”
Turkish military forces routinely conduct operations in Iraq as part of Turkey’s campaign against PKK militants.
Since 2019, following Erdogan’s announcement of a new strategy for counter-terrorism, Turkey has initiated several operations in northern Iraq aimed at combating terrorism at its source.
The PKK, known for its demands for increased Kurdish rights and its extensive fortifications in northern Iraq, is recognized as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States, and the European Union.
The group initiated its armed struggle against the Turkish government in 1984 and has since carried out numerous fatal attacks in Turkey.
On Thursday, an unidentified drone targeted the headquarters of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) near the Ministry of Interior in the heart of Baghdad, leading the Iraqi government to hold the US-led international coalition responsible for the attack.
The Iraqi Prime Minister’s media office, in a statement released on Thursday, described the targeting of the security headquarters as a blatant assault on sovereignty, emphasizing the rejection of this attack in its entirety.
The Iraqi armed forces also attributed responsibility for the attack to the coalition, asserting that targeting security headquarters undermines all understandings of the coalition.
