...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire...’s military offensive in the Kurdistan Region.
Turkey’s Defence Ministry announced on Friday the death of a ninth soldier, killed in the dual operations of Claw-Thunderbolt and Claw-Lightning.
The two campaigns, launched on April 23, are focused on the Metina, Avashin, and Basyan areas of Duhok province, near the border with Turkey.
Murat Karayilan, a senior PKK commander, told the PKK-affiliated Sterk TV on Friday that they have lost 18 fighters since the beginning of the operations and have lost contact with six others.
This year, the Kurdistan Region has seen more deadly festivities than Turkey, according to figures compiled by the International Crisis Group, which tracks the conflict. In the first four months of 2021, there have been 67 fatalities, 55 of them (or 82 percent) in the Kurdistan Region. The dead are 19
Since the decades-long conflict was reignited in 2015 following the collapse of peace efforts, 5,372 people have been killed, 773 of them (or about 15 percent) in the Kurdistan Region, including 43 civilians.
In its latest operation, Turkey has set up several military bases in Duhok province in a bid to cut off PKK routes into Turkey and Syria.