In retribution for the nine Turkish troops killed in Iraq, Turkey has reportedly targeted several places in Syria and northern Iraq that are purportedly connected to Kurdish militants, according to the defense ministry.
The soldiers were killed in an attack on a Turkish military post in Iraq the day before, which coincided with the Saturday attacks.
The People’s Protection Units (YPG), a Syrian Kurdish organization that has been a key component of the US-allied coalition against ISIS (ISIL), and the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) were among the 29 locations that the attacks, according to the ministry, targeted. These locations included “caves, bunkers, shelters, and oil installations.”
Attacks by Turkey against areas in Syria and Iraq that it believes are linked to the PKK are common.