The new offensive of the Turkish army began on 24 June in the region of northern Iraq, that is, southern Kurdistan. This offensive appears as another attempt by the Turkish ruling class to stifle the development of the Kurdish People’s Liberation Movement and pacify the Kurdish guerrillas in the area, all with the tacit support of the Iraqi government.
In the Zap region, the Turkish army has carried out fierce airstrikes before, and its presence on the ground was achieved through mercenary and similar intermediary formations. With these formations, the Kurdish guerrillas inflicted a series of minor defeats, both in Turkey itself and in Iraq.
This time, the regular Turkish ground army entered the territory of another sovereign state, in order to try to crush the movement with its own forces.
After the initial deviation, the guerrilla fighters began to systematically destroy smaller bases, armored vehicles and the soldiers themselves, for whom the inaccessible mountain area is not at all suitable for waging a long-term war.
The women’s armed wing of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party – YPJ carried out an attack with a guided missile on a Turkish base on 4 July, destroying a major Turkish facility, with almost certain human casualties.
In a similar way, an armored vehicle was destroyed on 5 July, while in the period before that, eight more attacks were carried out by FPV drones. In one of the guerilla attacks that took place on 12 July, according to the published video, a combat helicopter of the Turkish army was also brought down by ground action.
What is clear is that the Kurdish guerrillas are once again managing to impose their way of war on the enemy, regardless of his technological superiority, and that the Turkish army is headed for a heavy defeat if it tries to conduct long-term operations in that area.