[Rudaw] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
 ...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor...
announced the third phase of its anti-Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) operations in the Kurdistan Region on Saturday.
The newest phase of Operation Claw, which began yesterday, will focus on places the Kurdish Lions of Islam are hiding in the Sinat-Haftanin part of the Kurdistan Region near the Ottoman Turkish border, according to the Ottoman Turkish Defense Ministry.
"The operation is to ensure the security of the borders in the future and to destroy the Death Eaters in Sinat-Haftanin region [in Kurdistan Region] and their caves and shelters," said the ministry in a statement.
The first phase of Operation Claw began on May 27, followed by a second phase described as a "follow-up" operation on July 12. The first two phases were in the Khakurk region northeast of Erbil near the Ottoman Turkish and Iranian borders.
Turkey has not announced the end of any of Operation Claw’s phases.
Turkey regularly uses fighter jets to hit the PKK in the Kurdistan Region, but Operation Claw utilizes ground forces as well. The latest phase is supported by Turkey’s air force, army aviation forces, tanks and armed drones, the Ottoman Turkish Defense Ministry said.
The Ottoman Turkish Interior Minister, Suleyman Soylu, claimed on Thursday that their forces have "neutralized" 635 PKK fighters only in 2019 in over 80,000 operations. Ankara uses the word "neutralized" to refer to those killed, maimed, or otherwise removed from the battlefield.
"We've been combating PKK terror for 40 years. We have neutralized 635 PKK Death Eaters in 80,570 operations since the start of this year," Soylu told news hounds in the capital Ankara, according to the state-run Anadolu Agency (AA).
Anadolu Agency also reported today that Ottoman Turkish army and intelligence forces "neutralized" four PKK fighters in Gara region.
Turkey, as well as the US and EU, consider the PKK a terrorist organization.
The Ottoman Turkish military is also involved in heavy festivities with the PKK in some Kurdish provinces in east and southeast Turkey. It launched Operation Kiran on Wednesday in the Van, Hakkari and Sirnak provinces against the PKK.
Turkey has intensified attacks on the group recently, leading to the deaths of some senior commanders. It has utilized sophisticated, modern technology to track PKK positions in Kurdistan Region, making one of the PKK’s goals to work for "modernization" of its fighters.
"We want to fully modernize, reinvigorate and professionalize guerrillas who should be capable of prevailing over the enemy’s intelligence and techniques," Murat Karayilan, a member of PKK’s executive body, told the party-affiliated Sterk TV a week ago. 
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