Turkish warplanes struck more than 80 Kurdish targets in northern Iraq in response to an increase in attacks on Turkish army bases, the defence ministry said on Monday.
The latest operation, codenamed Operation Claw-Eagle, hit suspected PKK targets in several regions in Iraq’s north, including Sinjar, according to a tweet from the military, which claimed 81 PKK targets were targeted, including shelters and caves.
“The Claw-Eagle Operation has started. Our planes are bringing the caves down on the terrorists’ heads,” the defence ministry said.
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Turkey regularly targets Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) fighters, both in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast and in northern Iraq, where the group is based. There was no immediate statement from the PKK.
Along with the fighter jets, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and refueling aircraft also took part in the operation, the military said.
Al Jazeera’s Sinem Koseoglu, reporting from Istanbul, said the latest operation targeted multiple areas and was coordinated among several air force bases.

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Koseoglu noted Turkey’s military has been striking the PKK inside northern Iraq since 1996, adding PKK fighters had been “harassing” military and police units along the Turkish border.
“Turkey’s armed forces hit separate targets simultaneously this time, the logistics lines run through this area. According to Turkey’s defence ministry, some of the strikes were called off at the last minute over concerns of civilian casualties,” she said.
‘Threatening security’
A security source earlier told Reuters news agency the warplanes took off from various air bases in Turkey, notably in the southeastern cities of Diyarbakir and Malatya.
The defence ministry subsequently said the air operation targeted the PKK in its stronghold at Qandil, near the Iranian border, as well as the areas of Sinjar, Zap, Avasin-Basyan and Hakurk.
“The PKK and other terrorist elements are threatening the security of our people and borders with attacks increasing every day on the areas of our outposts and bases,” it said.
The PKK, designated as a “terrorist” group by Turkey, the United States and European Union, took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict, focused in southeast Turkey.
While Turkish warplanes frequently target PKK targets in northern Iraq, Turkey has also warned in recent years of a potential ground offensive targeting PKK bases in the Qandil mountains.
Koseoglu noted the head of Turkish intelligence had visited Iraq only a couple of days ago.
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A pair of Russian air-defense fighter jets buzzed a U.S. Navy patrol aircraft over the Mediterranean Sea on Tuesday in what officials called an “unsafe and unprofessional manner.”

The U.S. Navy P-8A Maritime Patrol and Reconnaissance Aircraft was over international waters in the eastern Mediterranean region when it was intercepted by two Russian Su-35 fighters.

For more than an hour, the Russian jets were on each wing of the P-8A patrol aircraft, which is based on the civilian 737 airliner. The dangerous maneuver restricted the patrol aircraft’s ability to operate in a safe manner, Navy officials said.

“The unnecessary actions of the Russian Su-35 pilots were inconsistent with good airmanship and international flight rules, and jeopardized the safety of flight of both aircraft,” Navy officials said.

The incident was the third such close call in the same region since April.

“In all cases, the U.S. aircraft were operating in international airspace, consistent with international law, with due regard for safety of flight, and did not provoke this Russian activity,” Navy officials said.

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A Saudi-UAE-led coalition fighting Yemen’s Houthi rebels has confirmed that one of its fighter jets went down in the war-torn country.
The Royal Saudi Air Force Tornado aircraft “crashed” in northern al-Jawf province during an operation to support Yemeni government forces, the coalition said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency on Saturday.
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It came after a spokesman for the Houthis said the group’s fighters had downed a Tornado jet belonging to “enemy forces” in the same province, according to a statement carried by their broadcaster Al Masirah TV on Friday.
Yahya Saria also said the plane was downed with an advanced air-to-ground missile.
Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, said it would be a “very significant” development in Yemen’s long-running war if the Houthis shot down the jet.
“If they would have such a capability of missile batteries or land-to-air capacity against the Saudi air force, that would actually be a game changer,” he said.
Reports of deadly air raids
Separately on Saturday, Al Masirah TV quoted Houthi health officials as saying that at least 30 civilians were killed in coalition air raids in the same region that the plane had gone down.
The death toll could not be independently verified.
Al Jazeera’s Mohammed al-Attab, reporting from the Houthi-held capital, Sanaa, said “Saudi fighter jets have intensified their air strikes” in the area.
Youssef al-Hadiri, a spokesperson for the Houthis’ health ministry, accused the Saudi-UAE-led coalition of hampering rescue operations on the scene of the purported strikes in the al-Jawf district of al-Masloub.
“It [the coalition] continues to carry out air raids there,” al-Hadiri told the dpa news agency, without providing more details.
The Saudi-UAE-led military coalition intervened in Yemen’s conflict in 2015 in support of forces loyal to President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who had been forced out by the Houthis.
A drastic surge in fighting between the warring sides since last month has exacerbated the country’s long-running war and further complicates a fragile peace process.
For months, back-channel negotiations in Oman between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis stirred modest hopes for reconciliation. But sharply escalating violence has put the political process on shaky ground.
Both sides have concentrated their forces in three main areas: Nehm, a half-hour drive from Sanaa; al-Jawf, a mountainous northern district; and Marib, a western province that saw one of the deadliest incidents in January when a missile attack on a government military camp killed more than 100 people.
Since the beginning of the conflict, tens of thousands of people have been killed and millions driven to the brink of famine in what the UN calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
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