Turkiye and Iraq planning joint counterterrorism steps against PKK

Turkiye and Iraq planning joint counterterrorism steps against PKK
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Iraq's foreign minister and other officials (R) meet with a visiting Turkish delegation headed by Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan (2-L)in Baghdad on March 14, 2024. (AFP)
Turkiye and Iraq planning joint counterterrorism steps against PKK
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Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein (R) receives his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan in Baghdad on March 14, 2024. (AFP))
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Updated 16 March 2024
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Turkiye and Iraq planning joint counterterrorism steps against PKK

Turkiye and Iraq planning joint counterterrorism steps against PKK
  • Landmark move comes as Baghdad seeks new ‘regional equilibrium’ to quell instability, analyst tells Arab News

BAGHDAD: Diplomatic activity between Ankara and Baghdad has surged this week, with senior Turkish officials making a high-level visit to the Iraqi capital on Thursday to discuss security, energy, and defense issues with their Iraqi counterparts.

The meetings, attended by key figures in Turkish foreign policy, defense, and intelligence agencies, centered not only on the reopening of oil transportation through the Turkish-Iraqi pipeline, but also on collaborative efforts to combat terrorism, particularly targeting the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party or PKK.
“During the meetings, the importance of Iraq’s political unity, sovereignty, and territorial integrity have been emphasized by both sides.
The parties have also underscored that the PKK poses a security threat to both Turkiye and Iraq, and its presence in Iraqi territory constitutes a violation of the Iraqi Constitution,” noted the joint official statement issued following Thursday’s meetings.

Baghdad has adopted a novel foreign policy approach with Iran, ultimately aiming to curtail foreign interference in Iraq.

Dr. Bilgay Duman Analyst

In the statement, Turkiye has also welcomed the decision by the Iraqi National Security Council declaring the PKK an outlawed organization in Iraq, and said “the parties have discussed measures to be taken against organizations and affiliates targeting Turkiye from Iraqi territories.”
Nuh Yilmaz, chief adviser of Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, posted on social media site X on Thursday night: “In the meetings held in Baghdad, Iraq and Turkiye decided to go beyond common threats and fight PKK terrorism together for the first time. A landmark decision. We’ll see the results gradually.”
Since early March, both Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Defense Minister Yasar Guler have hinted at the possibility of a summer cross-border military operation to bolster security along the Turkish-Iraqi border and fortify Turkish military points in the region.
Erdogan, who last visited Baghdad in 2012, is expected to make a trip to Iraq before the end of April.
Similarly, Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Oncu Keceli said on Wednesday: “The Iraqi authorities recognizing the PKK as a common security threat signals a growing willingness to combat the PKK within Iraq.”
Historically, Turkiye and Iraq have often clashed over the former’s intensified cross-border operations against PKK militants based in northern Iraq’s mountainous regions.
Iraq has protested, citing violations of its sovereignty, while Turkiye defended the operations as essential to safeguard its territorial integrity.
The talks on Thursday followed previous visits by Turkish intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin and Defense Minister Guler in January.
Additionally, last week, Kalin and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan held high-level meetings in Washington with US officials, considering the presence of US troops in Iraq.
Experts speculate that such a military operation could serve the interests of the ruling Justice and Development Party, particularly ahead of local elections on March 31, as it may attract nationalist support.
Since December, at least 25 Turkish soldiers have been killed in attacks by PKK militants, prompting Turkiye to respond with airstrikes.
“This year, the Claw-Lock operation will be completed initially, and operations will be expanded to other necessary areas,” Guler said recently.
Dr. Bilgay Duman, coordinator of Iraq studies at the Ankara-based think tank ORSAM, said that Iraq is facing its most severe threat perception regarding the presence of the PKK within its borders.
“Due to the series of operations initiated by Ankara since 2019, the PKK has been compelled to shift from the northern mountainous regions to the southern areas of Iraq, resulting in the evacuation of about 800 villages in the north,” he said.
“This geographical relocation has forced the PKK to extend its reach to urban centers in Iraq, such as Sulaimaniyah, Kirkuk, and Sinjar, leading to engagements with officials from the central administration.”
Duman said that the Iraqi central administration was striving to establish a new regional equilibrium to quell the instability that has persisted for two decades.
“Baghdad has adopted a novel foreign policy approach with Iran, ultimately aiming to curtail foreign interference in Iraq,” he said.
Simultaneously, the Turkiye-Iraq Development Road Project has heralded a fresh chapter in bilateral relations between Ankara and Baghdad. Duman underscored the significance of this ambitious infrastructure venture, which aims to link Iraq and Turkiye through railways, ports, roads, and cities, fostering a new economic development paradigm in the region necessitating robust security measures.
“Security must be reinstated along the regions traversed by this project, prompting Baghdad to take proactive measures to reinforce its central administrative authority,” he said.
The project, slated for completion in three phases by 2028, 2033, and 2050, is anticipated to integrate Iraq into the global arena via Turkiye.
Regarding the imminent summer operation targeting PKK hideouts in Iraqi territories, Duman said that it would be a continuation of previous Turkish endeavors to eradicate PKK presence in the northern regions.
“Turkiye aims to establish a 30-40 km-deep security corridor along its borders, supplementing it with military installations in coordination with the Iraqi government,” he said.
“Given the impracticality of deploying soldiers along every point of the 378 km border with Iraq, Turkiye is likely to conduct sporadic operations, potentially in collaboration with Iraq, owing to shared threat perceptions.”
Duman said a joint operation room could even be established to ensure seamless military coordination.
Rich Outzen, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and the Jamestown Foundation, believes the possibility of a large operation from mid-spring through summer is very high.
“President Erdogan and others in Ankara have signaled a significant operation to disrupt PKK transport and supply routes — also referred to as ‘lines of communication’ in military parlance — that travel east-west from Qandil, through the Irbil area and out to Sinjar. Disrupting those lines requires moving off the mountain ridgelines along the border deeper into Iraq. That would be the immediate goal,” he told
Arab News.
According to Outzen, Irbil’s motives are clear: to re-establish security control in areas of the Kurdistan region of Iraq that the PKK has gradually asserted control over in recent years.
“For Baghdad, the motive might be to avoid confrontation with Ankara during the operations by participating and helping to shape or limit them,” he said.
“In the background, Baghdad is involved in a struggle for autonomy over foreign policy from Tehran, which exercises influence in numerous ways,” he said.
Outzen added: “Deepening cooperation with Turkiye is one way to develop a counterweight to Iranian influence, which has risen as US influence in Iraq has waned. Especially with talk of a possible withdrawal or further reduction in US troop levels in Iraq, Turkiye becomes a more attractive security partner.”
In the meantime, the burgeoning cooperation between Ankara and Baghdad in counterterrorism may exert pressure on the Iraqi Kurdish Patriotic Union of Kurdistan or PUK, which governs Sulaimaniyah province.
“Accused of backing the PKK, the PUK faces heightened scrutiny, compounded by Turkiye’s closure of its airspace at the Sulaimaniyah airport since April, exerting additional social strain on residents,” Duman said.
“The prospect of joint military operations between Turkiye and Iraq may further marginalize the PUK, potentially compelling the party to reassess its stance toward the PKK.”
From his part, Outzen noted that PUK and PKK are both known
for their close ties to Iranian security services.
“And Baghdad may have come to the conclusion that it’s time to pare back their ambitions in the north as well,” he said.

 


Hezbollah rockets hit Israel’s Haifa, 10 injured

Hezbollah rockets hit Israel’s Haifa, 10 injured
Updated 4 sec ago
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Hezbollah rockets hit Israel’s Haifa, 10 injured

Hezbollah rockets hit Israel’s Haifa, 10 injured
  • Israel’s military said fighter jets hit targets belonging to Hezbollah’s Intelligence Headquarters in Beirut, including intelligence-gathering means, command centers, and additional infrastructure sites

JERUSALEM: Hezbollah rockets hit Haifa, Israel’s third-largest city, Israeli police said early on Monday, and Israeli media reported 10 people were injured in the country’s north.
Hezbollah said it targeted a military base south of Haifa with a salvo of “Fadi 1” missiles. Media reports said two rockets hit Haifa.
Police said that some buildings and properties were damaged, and that there were several reports of minor injuries and people were taken to a nearby hospital.
Israel’s military said fighter jets hit targets belonging to Hezbollah’s Intelligence Headquarters in Beirut, including intelligence-gathering means, command centers, and additional infrastructure sites.
Over the past few hours, the airstrikes struck Hezbollah weapons storage facilities in the area of Beirut, the military said, noting that secondary explosions were identified following the strikes, indicating the presence of weaponry.
Airstrikes also struck Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon and the Beqaa area, including weapons storage facilities, infrastructure sites, a command center, and a launcher, the military said.
It blamed Hezbollah for deliberately embedding its command centers and weaponry beneath residential buildings in the heart of the city of Beirut and endangering the civilian population.
 

 


Russia says it struck two Syrian militant sites

Russia says it struck two Syrian militant sites
Updated 26 min 42 sec ago
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Russia says it struck two Syrian militant sites

Russia says it struck two Syrian militant sites
  • “Russian Aerospace Forces have struck two identified sites of militant who left the Al-Tanf zone,” RIA quoted Ignasyuk, who is also theputy head of the Russian Reconciliation Center for Syria, as telling a briefing

DAMASCUS: Russia’s air force carried out strikes on two militant sites in Syria outside the area of Al-Tanf, Russia’s RIA state news agency reported on Sunday, referring to the region of a US military base.
Citing Captain Oleg Ignasyuk, the report did not specify the location but said the militants had recently left the Al-Tanf area, which borders Jordan.
“Russian Aerospace Forces have struck two identified sites of militant who left the Al-Tanf zone,” RIA quoted Ignasyuk, who is also theputy head of the Russian Reconciliation Center for Syria, as telling a briefing.

 


Tunisia’s Saied toward landslide win in election, supporters celebrate

Tunisia’s Saied toward landslide win in election, supporters celebrate
Updated 2 min 22 sec ago
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Tunisia’s Saied toward landslide win in election, supporters celebrate

Tunisia’s Saied toward landslide win in election, supporters celebrate
  • Saied, 66, has rejected criticism of his actions, saying he is fighting a corrupt elite and traitors, and that he will not be a dictator

TUNIS: Supporters of current Tunisian President Kais Saied began celebrations in the capital on Sunday night after an exit poll broadcast on state television showed him winning, beating two rivals, one of whom is now in prison
Saied on Sunday faced two election rivals: his former ally turned critic, Chaab Party leader Zouhair Maghzaoui, and Ayachi Zammel, who was jailed last month.
Turnout stood at 27.7 percent, the election commission said after the close of polls — just half what it was in the runoff round of the 2019 presidential election.
Official results are not expected until Monday evening but an exit poll by Sigma company, a polling agency, showed Saied in the lead with 89.2 percent of votes, according to state television.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Main rival was jailed last month

• Rights groups say Saied has undone democratic gains

• Saied says he is fighting a corrupt elite

• Exit poll puts Saied in the lead with 89.2 percent of votes

In his first comment, Saied told state television, “This is a continuation of the revolution. We will build and will cleanse the country of the corrupt, traitors and conspirators.”

Zammel and Maghzaoui’s campaigns rejected the exit poll results saying the real results will be different.
On the main avenue of Habib Bourguiba in the capital city of Tunis, celebrants raised pictures of Saied and the Tunisian flag, chanting “The people want to build and develop.”
“We rejoice for a person because he served the state and not for his own benefit, he serves for the benefit of the people and the state,” Mohsen Ibrahim said when he was celebrating.
Tunisia had for years been hailed as the only relative success story of the 2011 “Arab Spring” uprisings for introducing a competitive, though flawed, democracy following decades of autocratic rule.

However, rights groups now say Saied, in power since 2019, has undone many of those democratic gains while removing institutional and legal checks on his power. Saied, 66, has rejected criticism of his actions, saying he is fighting a corrupt elite and traitors, and that he will not be a dictator.
Senior figures from the biggest parties, which largely oppose Saied, have been imprisoned on various charges over the past year and those parties have not publicly backed any of the three candidates on Sunday’s ballot. Other opponents have been barred from running.
“The scene is shameful. Journalists and opponents in prison, including one presidential candidate.” said Wael, a bank employee in Tunis, who gave only his first name.
CANDIDATES DISQUALIFIED
Political tensions have risen since an electoral commission named by Saied disqualified three prominent candidates last month, amid protests by opposition and civil society groups.
Lawmakers loyal to Saied then approved a law last week stripping the administrative court of authority over election disputes. This court is widely seen as the country’s last independent judicial body, after Saied dissolved the Supreme Judicial Council and dismissed dozens of judges in 2022.
While elections in the years soon after the 2011 revolution were fiercely contested and drew very high participation rates, public anger at Tunisia’s poor economic performance and corruption among the elite led to disillusionment.
Saied, elected in 2019, seized most powers in 2021 when he dissolved the elected parliament and rewrote the constitution, a move the opposition described as a coup.
A referendum on the constitution passed with turnout of only 30 percent, while a January 2023 runoff for the new, nearly powerless, parliament he created with that constitution had turnout of only 11 percent.
Although tourism revenues are on the rise and there has been financial help from European countries worried about migration, state finances remain strained. Shortages of subsidised goods are common, as are outages of power and water.

 

 


Hamas praises ‘glorious’ Oct 7 attack ahead of anniversary

Hamas praises ‘glorious’ Oct 7 attack ahead of anniversary
Updated 52 min 13 sec ago
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Hamas praises ‘glorious’ Oct 7 attack ahead of anniversary

Hamas praises ‘glorious’ Oct 7 attack ahead of anniversary
  • At least 41,870 Palestinians, a majority of them civilians, have been killed in Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip since the war began, according to data provided by the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza

DOHA: Palestinian militant group Hamas on Sunday praised its October 7 attack on Israel in a video message ahead of the first anniversary of the deadly storming of southern Israel which sparked the war in Gaza.
“The crossing of the glorious 7th of October shattered the illusions the enemy had created for itself, convincing the world and the region of its supposed superiority and capabilities,” Qatar-based Hamas member Khalil Al-Hayya said in a video statement.
Last year’s October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity.
At least 41,870 Palestinians, a majority of them civilians, have been killed in Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip since the war began, according to data provided by the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. The UN has acknowledged these figures as reliable.
Al-Hayya, said a year after the October 7 attack, “all of Palestine, particularly Gaza, and our Palestinian people are writing a new history with their resistance, blood, and steadfastness.”
The Hamas member, who has emerged as the Islamist group’s public face following the killing of its former leader Ismail Haniyeh in July, said Gazans had remained “resilient to all attempts at displacement... despite the kinds of torture and terrorism you have endured, and the horrific genocide and daily massacre.”


 

 


Iran’s Quds Force chief out of contact since Beirut strikes, Iranian officials say

Iran’s Quds Force chief out of contact since Beirut strikes, Iranian officials say
Updated 07 October 2024
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Iran’s Quds Force chief out of contact since Beirut strikes, Iranian officials say

Iran’s Quds Force chief out of contact since Beirut strikes, Iranian officials say
  • The second Iranian official also said Qaani had traveled to Lebanon after the killing of Nasrallah and the Iranian authorities had not been able to contact him since the strike against Safieddine, who was widely expected to be the next Hezbollah chief

DAMASCUS: Iran’s Quds Force commander Esmail Qaani, who traveled to Lebanon after the killing last month of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli airstrike, has not been heard from since strikes on Beirut late last week, two senior Iranian security officials told Reuters.
One of the officials said Qaani was in Beirut’s southern suburbs, known as the Dahiyeh, during a strike that was reported to have targeted senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine but the official said he was not meeting Safieddine.
A Hezbollah official said Israel was not allowing a search for Safieddine to progress after it bombed Beirut’s southern suburbs on Thursday. The officials said the group would only announce Safieddine’s fate when the search concluded.
Safieddine is seen as a likely successor to Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli strike on Dahiyeh on Sept. 27.
The Iranian official said Iran and Hezbollah had not been able to contact Qaani, named by Tehran as the head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps’ overseas military-intelligence service, or Quds Force, after the United States assassinated his predecessor Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike in Baghdad in 2020.
Israel has been hitting multiple targets in Dahiyeh as it pursues a campaign against Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah.
The second Iranian official also said Qaani had traveled to Lebanon after the killing of Nasrallah and the Iranian authorities had not been able to contact him since the strike against Safieddine, who was widely expected to be the next Hezbollah chief.
Asked about reports that Qaani may have been killed in an Israeli strike in Beirut, Israeli military spokesperson Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said the results of the strikes were still being assessed.
He said that Israel had conducted an attack late last week against Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters in Beirut.
“When we have more specific results from that strike, we will share it. There’s a lot of questions about who was there and who was not,” he told a briefing with reporters.
The Quds Force, the overseas arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, oversees dealings with militias allied with Tehran across the Middle East, such as Hezbollah.
Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander Brig. Gen. Abbas Nilforoushan was killed with Nasrallah in his bunker when it was hit on Sept. 27 by Israeli bombs.