Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu was sworn in on Sunday to arrest PKK leader Murat Karaylan and “cut him to thousand pieces” after the execution of 13 Turkish civilians by the PKK in the Gara region of northern Iraq.
“Preliminary investigations have shown that 12 of our innocent and unarmed civilians were shot in the head and martyred (died), while another was shot in the shoulder and martyred,” said Defense Minister Hulusi Akar.
“While our activities in the area where Operation Claw-Eagle 2 are being carried out, the bodies of 13 abducted civilians were found in a search of a cave that was occupied after intense clashes,” Akar said.
“According to initial information received from the two terrorists who were arrested alive, our citizens martyred at the start of the operation by the terrorist in charge of the cave,” he said, adding that all the executioners in the cave were arrested or killed.
For their part, the Kurds claim that the Turkish Ministry of Defense announced last night the withdrawal of its forces from the Gara region and the end of the Claw-Eagle 2 military operation.
Kurdish media report that in a Turkish operation to free the captives in the previous days, the Turkish forces had already suffered many casualties and, being surrounded, carried out a blind bombing and accidentally killed the Turkish captives themselves.
The captives, according to the PKK, were Turkish members of the intelligence service and soldiers who had been held for five years.
According to the Kurdish Rojava Network, the Turkish forces have made the same tragic mistake in a similar case a few years ago.
During the Turkish attack in Afrin, Syria in early 2018, the YPG had captured a group of Turkish officers and soldiers, but the occupying Turkish army bombed the area, killing the Turkish captives again.
