Turkish army inflicts heavy losses on PKK terrorists in Iraq’s Qandil

As the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF) continue to advance and establish bases in northern Iraq’s Qandil region in the context of the ongoing counterterrorism operation, terrorists from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) are retreating from the frontlines without any resistance.

The TAF has established 20 temporary bases in Qandil since the start of the operation on March 10.

Senior PKK terrorists are in a state of panic as the Turkish army continues to advance in the region.

Northern Iraq’s Qandil Mountains have been a haven for PKK terrorists over the past few decades. Considered as the main base of the PKK, which control checkpoints and entrances to the mountains, the structuring in the area is used for cover and concealment by terrorists.

A radio exchange between two senior terrorists revealed that the terror group is now mostly only able to move across the Iranian-controlled side of Mt. Qandil.

In their encrypted exchange intercepted by intelligence units, senior terrorists Muarat Karayılan and Jameel Bayık, who are currently positioned on what they called the “frontline,” accused and chided rank and file members of the terror group for not showing proper resistance.

“You’re not showing proper resistance. You don’t resist at all. We lost a large number of positions. If Qandil falls, it all ends,” they said, according to one of the obtained audio exchanges.

Security forces state that by establishing military bases in the region, the TAF has ensured a lasting PKK withdrawal from this region as it inflicts heavy material losses to the terror group, which is set to lose an important source of income after imposing a so-called “road and service tax” on civilians in the region.

The Turkish military has neutralized 87 PKK terrorists during counterterrorism operations in southeastern Turkey's Şırnak province and northern Iraq over the past week.

Turkish authorities often use the word "neutralized" in their statements to imply that the terrorists in question were either killed, captured or surrendered.

During the operations, 127 improvised explosives were also defused while 12 weapon emplacements and shelters were destroyed, it added.

In a statement released yesterday, the Turkish General Staff said airstrikes were carried out in the Sinat-Haftanin, Metina, and Gara regions of northern Iraq.

Shelters, weapon emplacements, and ammunition depots were destroyed in the airstrikes, the statement added.

Airstrikes on PKK targets in northern Iraq have been carried out regularly since July 2015, when the PKK resumed its decades-long armed campaign.

The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey as well as the U.S. and the EU.

In its terror campaign against Turkey, which has lasted for more than three decades, over 40,000 people have been killed, including women and children.