Since 2019, the Turkish military has dealt a serious blow to the terrorist PKK with its series of operations under the Claw umbrella in northern Iraq, close to the Turkish border.

A total of 1,067 terrorists were neutralized as part of the series of Claw operations, which started with Hakurk in 2019, continued with Sinat-Haftanin, expanded with Metina and Avasin-Basyan, and most recently continued with the Zap region.

PKK terrorists often hide out in northern Iraq, close to the Turkish border, to plot attacks in Turkey.

Terrorist nests in northern Iraq were dispersed in successive operations after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared the adoption of a new strategy in the fight against terrorism.

The first of these operations was carried out three years ago, on May 27, 2019, in the Hakurk region with the aim of destroying caves and shelters used by the terrorist PKK and neutralizing terrorists.

A new phase of the operation was started after the determined targets were successfully gotten under control. Terror nests were decimated in the Claw-2 operation, which was carried out by expanding the area of the initial operation. Turkish soldiers neutralized 126 terrorists in Operation Claw-1 and 102 terrorists in Operation Claw-2.

After the threat to border security from Hakurk was largely eliminated, the Turkish military’s next targets were terrorist nests in the Sinat-Haftanin region.

In August 2019, the National Defense Ministry anounced that "Operation Claw-3 was launched in the Sinat-Haftanin region with the aim of ensuring border security and destroying the caves and shelters of terrorists."

Over 100 terrorists were neutralized in Operation Claw-3.