Turkey says hits nearly 500 Kurdish targets in Syria, Iraq
'254 terrorists were neutralized in the operation'
Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said Wednesday that Turkey's military had hit nearly 500 Kurdish targets across Iraq and Syria as part of a campaign of air strikes.
"So far 471 targets have been struck and 254 terrorists were neutralized in the operation," Akar was quoted as saying by the official Anadolu news agency.
Ankara began a series of air strikes as part of Operation "Claw-Sword" on Sunday. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday threatened to launch a ground operation into Syria "with tanks and soldiers" in defiance of international pressure not to do so.
Turkey's air raids followed a bombing in Istanbul on November 13 that killed six people and wounded 81. Ankara blamed the attack on the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is blacklisted as a terror group by the European Union and the United States. The PKK denied any role in the bombing - the deadliest in five years after a spate of attacks in Turkey between 2015 and 2017.
Earlier on Tuesday, Russia said it hoped Turkey would show "restraint" and refrain from "any excessive use of force" in Syria. Ariel Oseran, i24NEWS Middle East correspondent, explained that until now the involvement of “key international actors like the U.S. and Russia, has kept Erdogan's ambitions at bay,” but the situation might change.
“It wouldn’t be surprising if Erdogan is choosing this particular moment to carry out his ambitious plan while the attention of global powers focused more on Ukraine and Qatar rather than northern Syria and Iraq,” he said.