Turkish airstrikes have killed more than 260 members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in a week-long operation against the Kurdish militant group inside Turkey and in northern Iraq, state media said Saturday.
More than 400 PKK members were also injured in Turkish campaign of airstrikes launched on July 24, Anadolu Agency reported.
Nurettin Demirtas, the brother of pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) co-chair Selahattin Demirtas, was also injured in airstrikes. Forty-two-year-old charismatic Kurdish leader Demirtas, known as the "Kurdish Obama," recently led his HDP party to a breakthrough in recent legislative elections.
More than 65 targets were destroyed, including suspected shelters, equipment storages, ammunition dumps and caves in airstrikes on Friday. The Turkish airstrikes against PKK, a U.S.-listed terror group, are expected to continue, sources told Anadolu Agency.
Iraq's Kurdish regional government, however, urged Turkey to stop its airstrikes against PKK.
"Of course we do not want our country to be bombarded and we don't believe it will help solve this situation. It will only escalate the tension. Therefore we urge both sides to go back to the ceasefire," Kurdistan's head of foreign relations Falah Mustafa said, according to Agence France-Presse.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu outlined in The Washington Post on Friday his government's position on terrorism, particularly against ISIS and PKK.
"We in Turkey are all too familiar with terrorism. We have suffered immensely and paid a heavy price. Our resolve has not waned; we are determined to meet the terrorist threat when and where it presents itself," Davutoglu said.
"All terrorist organizations that target Turkey must know that their acts will not go unpunished and that we will respond to their acts with full resolve, as we have every right to under international law," he added.
