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Iran Joins Turkey in Carrying out Strikes on Iraqi Territories

A Turkish F-16 fighter jet takes off from Incirlik airbase in the southern city of Adana, Turkey, July 27, 2015. (Reuters)
A Turkish F-16 fighter jet takes off from Incirlik airbase in the southern city of Adana, Turkey, July 27, 2015. (Reuters)
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Iran Joins Turkey in Carrying out Strikes on Iraqi Territories

A Turkish F-16 fighter jet takes off from Incirlik airbase in the southern city of Adana, Turkey, July 27, 2015. (Reuters)
A Turkish F-16 fighter jet takes off from Incirlik airbase in the southern city of Adana, Turkey, July 27, 2015. (Reuters)

Iran joined Turkey in carrying out airstrikes against Iraqi territories in the northern Kurdistan Region.

Turkish fighter jets struck on Sunday night Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) positions in northern Iraq, destroying “terrorist” hideouts. It carried out 81 attacks against PKK targets in the Sinjar region and nearby areas as part of Operation Claw-Eagle.

Ankara carried out even more attacks on Wednesday. Its Defense Ministry announced that warplanes struck Kurdish militant targets in northern Iraq’s Haftanin region.

“In order to neutralize the PKK and other terrorist elements threatening our people and our borders, our Air Force, along with fire-support equipment, helicopters and our commandos, supported by armed and unarmed drones, have mobilized to the region with air operations,” the ministry said in a tweet.

Turkey regularly targets PKK militants, both in its mainly Kurdish southeast and in northern Iraq, where the group is based. The two latest airstrikes come amid what Ankara alleges is an increase in militant attacks on Turkish army bases.

Kurdish sources revealed that Turkey has even cooperated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps in striking the region. The Rudaw news agency reported that strikes targeted the heights of Baraskan in the village of Alana. No human losses were reported.

Security sources said Iranian forces shelled border regions, wounding several farmers.

Tehran has justified its attacks against Kurdish regions in Iraq saying it is targeting the Iranian Kurdish opposition that operates within Iraqi territories.

The joint operations command in Iraq slammed Turkey’s violations earlier this week, saying such acts are a flagrant violation of Iraqi sovereignty, good neighborliness and international agreements.

It called on Ankara against launching such attacks again and committing any other violations, saying it must respect the common interests of both countries.

Iraq said it was prepared to cooperate with Turkey over securing their joint borders.

Leading member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan Rashad Galali described as “shameful” Turkey’s repeated attacks on Iraqi territory that have been met with no deterrent response from the federal government.

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Three Palestinians Killed in Standoff with Security Forces in West Bank

Palestinians inspect the damage done to a mosque, after a reported attack by Israeli settlers, in the town of Marda near the West Bank city of Salfit on December 20, 2024. (AFP)
Palestinians inspect the damage done to a mosque, after a reported attack by Israeli settlers, in the town of Marda near the West Bank city of Salfit on December 20, 2024. (AFP)
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Three Palestinians Killed in Standoff with Security Forces in West Bank

Palestinians inspect the damage done to a mosque, after a reported attack by Israeli settlers, in the town of Marda near the West Bank city of Salfit on December 20, 2024. (AFP)
Palestinians inspect the damage done to a mosque, after a reported attack by Israeli settlers, in the town of Marda near the West Bank city of Salfit on December 20, 2024. (AFP)

A Palestinian man and his son were killed in Jenin, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, local medical officials said on Friday, as a month-long standoff between Palestinian security forces and armed militant groups in the town continued.

Separately, a security forces officer died in what Palestinian Authority (PA) officials said was an accident, bringing to six the total number of the security forces to have died in the operation in Jenin which began on Dec. 5. There were no further details.

The PA denied that its forces killed the 44-year-old man and his son, who were shot as they stood on the roof of their house in the Jenin refugee camp, a crowded quarter that houses descendants of Palestinians who fled or were driven out in the 1948 Middle East war. The man's daughter was also wounded in the incident, Reuters reported.

At least eight Palestinians have been killed in Jenin over the past month, one of them a member of the armed Jenin Brigades, which includes members of the armed wings of the Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah factions.

Palestinian security forces moved into Jenin last month in an operation officials say is aimed at suppressing armed groups of "outlaws" who have built up a power base in the city and its adjacent refugee camp.

The operation has deepened splits among Palestinians in the West Bank, where the PA enjoys little popular support but where many fear being dragged into a Gaza-style conflict with Israel if the militant groups strengthen their hold.

Jenin, in the northern West Bank, has been a center of Palestinian militant groups for decades and armed factions have resisted repeated attempts to dislodge them by the Israeli military over the years.

The PA set up three decades ago under the Oslo interim peace accords, exercises limited sovereignty in parts of the West Bank and has claimed a role in administering Gaza once fighting in the enclave is concluded.

The PA is dominated by the Fatah faction of President Mahmoud Abbas and has long had a tense relationship with Hamas, with which it fought a brief civil war in Gaza in 2006 before Hamas drove it out of the enclave.