ANKARA (Xinhua) – Turkish security forces have carried out anti-terror operations across the country’s 28 provinces, destroying shelters and equipment of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a cabinet minister said on Tuesday.
A total of 4,731 security teams have carried out raids in PKK’s rural hideouts and destroyed 11 large caves and bunkers of the group, Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
The forces seized a total of 37 kilograms of explosives and 12 mines. Some 57 guns and rifles, 10,135 units of ammunition for various weapons, 10 hand grenades, and a large amount of food, miscellaneous items, and organizational documents were also seized in these raids, said the minister.
The raids were part of the ongoing “Operation Heroes” against the PKK group, which claimed responsibility for a suicidal bomb attack in the capital Ankara on Oct. 1. The attack took place in front of the Interior Ministry’s building, leaving two assailants dead and two police officers wounded.
The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, has rebelled against the Turkish government for more than three decades.
Meanwhile, the Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MIT) has killed the logistical ringleader of the PKK in an operation in northern Iraq, the semi-official Anadolu Agency reported on Tuesday.
Cahit Aktay, codenamed Huseyin Piran, was involved in a planned attack in Turkey’s “Operation Claw-Lock” zone in northern Iraq, the agency quoted anonymous security sources as saying.
Aktay was allegedly plotting attacks on Turkish security forces and working to smuggle weapons and ammunition.
The PKK member was also believed to have taken part in the planning of a 2016 attack in Turkey’s southeastern Sirnak province, where three Turkish soldiers and two village guards were killed.
He joined the rural ranks of the PKK in 2008 and became the group’s financial and logistical ringleader in the Metina region in 2019.
The MIT has stepped up its operations abroad in recent years to stamp out “terrorist” activities against Turkey in neighboring Iraq and Syria.