Türkiye continues both domestic and cross-border anti-terror operations

Turkish security forces have neutralised at least 12 PKK terrorists in Iraq's Metina region, according to the National Defence Ministry.

In a statement on X, the ministry said that the terrorists were targeted in the Metina region during Operation Claw Lock.

Turkish Armed Forces will resolutely demolish terrorist hideouts, it added.

Turkish authorities use the term "neutralise" to imply the terrorists in question surrendered or were killed or captured.

In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Türkiye, the PKK, listed as a terrorist organisation by Türkiye, the US, and the EU, has been responsible for the deaths of more than 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants.

Türkiye launched Operation Claw Lock in April 2022 to target the terror organisation's hideouts in northern Iraq's Metina, Zap and Avasin-Basyan regions near the Turkish border.

Suspected Daesh terrorists

Turkish police captured at least 24 suspects affiliated with the Daesh terrorist organisation in anti-terror operations across the country, the interior minister said on Saturday.

Ali Yerlikaya said on X that the operations dubbed Bozdogan-15, conducted under the coordination of intelligence and counterterrorism directorates, were carried out by police in the provinces of Aksaray, Bolu, Gaziantep, Istanbul, Yalova, Kilis, Sakarya, and Samsun.

Yerlikaya also extended his congratulations to the police personnel involved in the operations.

In 2013, Türkiye became one of the first countries to declare Daesh a terrorist organisation.

The country has since been attacked by the terror group multiple times, with over 300 people killed and hundreds more injured in at least ten suicide bombings, seven bomb attacks, and four armed attacks.