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Turkey’s Defense Minister Hulusi Akar went to the Turkish operations center in Sirnak and then carried out inspections of the Turkish armed forces.
During the visit, Akar admitted for the first time that the operation in Northern Iraq was continuing in difficult circumstances and also made statements on this:
“To this day, our friends have made great sacrifices. Mountains, slopes, hard to get down. Helicopters can’t pull out wheels to move on the ground. Everything that needs to be done in the fight so far has been done.
Our helicopters conducted 300-500 excursions for airbridge-type attacks. Unfortunately, some of the countries we know as friends have given missiles to the PKK. Therefore, each of these systems is a great danger to us, a great risk.”
Nevertheless, Akar said a total of 53 PKK fighters have been killed so far and added that the dead soldiers on the Turkish side are 7.
Akar’s phrase about “friend-countries” giving missiles to PKK points the finger at the U.S. Turkey accuses the U.S of giving anti-tank and anti-aircraft manpads to PKK Kurds via other Kurdish organizations.
