Turkish forces are seen at Mount Barsaya in northeast of Afrin, January 28, 2018 / Khalil Ashawi / Reuters
On September 11, Turkey acknowledged that three of its military service members were killed while taking part in Operation Claw-Lock in Iraq’s northern region.
The Turkish Ministry of National Defense said that Sergeant Harun Yildirim, Sergeant Savas Borlu and senior Sergeant Gokhan Agil were killed and three other service members were wounded in clashes with fighters of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
The death of the three service members was announced just a few hours after a Turkish drone strike that targeted a vehicle of the PKK in the northern Iraqi province of Nineveh. The strike killed two fighters of the Kurdish guerilla group and wounded one other. It was apparently a response to the deadly clashes with the PKK.
The Turkish military kicked off Operation Claw-Lock in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region in mid-April with the aim of neutralizing PKK cells in the areas of Metina, Zap and Avashin Basyan.
The new causalities brings to 54 the number of Turkish troops killed in the Kurdistan Region since the beginning of the large-scale operation.
Operation Claw-Lock inflicted heavy human and material losses on the PKK. However, the group is still conducting effective offensive and defensive operations.
Turkey paid a heavy political price for the operation, which provoke all sides in Iraq. The central government in Baghdad called on Ankara to withdraw all of its forces from the country last July following a series of Turkish strikes that targeted resorts in the province of Duhok. The strikes killed nine civilians, including a one-year-old child.
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