ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkish forces killed 24 Kurdish militants in northern Iraq and Syria over the past week, the defence ministry said on Thursday, continuing attacks in the region after a disarmament call from the PKK leader and a separate accord between U.S.-backed Kurds and Damascus.
Speaking at a briefing in Ankara, a defence ministry source said the deal between the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Damascus did not change Turkey’s commitment to counter-terrorism in Syria, and that it still demands that the YPG militia, which spearheads the SDF, disband and disarm.
Turkey views the SDF, which controls much of northeast Syria, as a terrorist group linked with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group, which has waged a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state. It has carried out several cross-border offensives against the group.
The PKK’s leader, jailed in Turkey, called for the group to disarm last month. The group is based in northern Iraq.
(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Jonathan Spicer)
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