Turkey pledges measures against threats from Qandil

By Kerem Kocalar

GAZIANTEP, Turkey (AA) - Turkey will take all necessary measures to eliminate any threat against it from Qandil, the country’s justice minister said on Tuesday.

“We will take all kind of decisive measures and steps until all the threats against Turkey from Qandil are removed,” Abdulhamit Gul said in a live interview with CNN Turk in southern Gaziantep province.

“Turkish armed forces, [which will] make no compromise, will decisively continue to fight against any kind of elements threatening Turkey until all [terrorists] are eliminated,” Gul said.

Turkey has launched anti-terror operations in both Qandil and Sinjar regions in northern Iraq, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday.

Separately, on Tuesday midnight, Turkish jets destroyed 12 targets in northern Iraq, including Mt. Qandil.

Airstrikes on PKK targets in northern Iraq, where the terror group has its main base in the Mt. Qandil region, near the Iranian border, have been carried out regularly since July 2015, when the terrorist PKK resumed its armed campaign.

The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey as well as the U.S. and EU. In its terror campaign against Turkey, which has lasted for more than three decades, over 40,000 people have been killed, including women and children.