Turkey has announced that airstrikes in the mountain region of northern Iraq have killed 13 Kurdish fighters belonging to the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) over the weekend.
This came one day after bombings killed 10 PKK fighters in Turkey’s southeastern province.
There has been harsh criticism by many in the U.S.-backed YPG for Turkey’s continued targeting of Kurdish forces as they fight an embittered battle against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
Many believe that the Turkish regime’s aggression against the Kurds is a step in the wrong direction, as world powers come together to deal with the serious threat posed by the Islamic State across the Middle East.
Heval Zinar, a former U.S. Marine who fought for the YPG during the battles leading up the Raqqa offensive, said that he believed the Turkish aggression was affecting the overall mission.
“The Turks continue to bomb the Kurds, and the Kurds are focused on eliminating the ISIS threat in the Middle East,” Zinar told American Military News. “How can they claim to want to be a part of the solution when they do nothing except murder the people who are really out there fighting ISIS alongside U.S. and NATO forces? There needs to be some accountability by world leaders to address this Turkish aggression as we all try to move forward with mass operations against the Islamic State.”
The YPG quietly resumed operations earlier last month after widely announcing that they intended to stop their forces in place until western leaders addressed the growing animosity between Turkish and Kurdish forces.
[revad2]
