The joint Claw-Eagle and Claw-Tiger operations ( Turkish: Pençe-Kartal Operasyonu ''and'' Pençe-Kaplan Operasyonu) was a

Turkish Armed Forces The Turkish Armed Forces (TAF; tr, Türk Silahlı Kuvvetleri, TSK) are the military forces of the Republic of Turkey. Turkish Armed Forces consist of the General Staff, the Land Forces, the Naval Forces and the Air Forces. The current Chi ...

external operation in northern

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

. The operation took place in the Qandil Mountains, the

Sinjar District The Sinjar District or the Shingal District (, ku, قەزای شنگال ,Qeza Şingal) is a district of the Nineveh Governorate. The district seat is the town of Sinjar. The district has two subdistricts, al-Shemal and al-Qayrawan. The district ...

, and Makhmur, against

Kurdistan Workers' Party The Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK is a Kurdish militant political organization and armed guerrilla movement, which historically operated throughout Kurdistan, but is now primarily based in the mountainous Kurdish-majority regions of sout ...

(PKK) targets, as part of the ongoing Kurdish–Turkish and Kurdish–Iranian conflicts. Claw-Eagle, the air campaign, began on 15 June 2020. Claw-Tiger, the ground campaign, was launched on 17 June.

Background

As part of the 2013–2015 peace talks, the

agreed to move most of its fighters to the mountains in

Iraqi Kurdistan Iraqi Kurdistan or Southern Kurdistan ( ku, باشووری کوردستان, Başûrê Kurdistanê) refers to the Kurdish-populated part of northern Iraq. It is considered one of the four parts of "Kurdistan" in Western Asia, which also inc ...

. The

also established bases in Iraq which sparked regional and international condemnation. The conflict reignited once more in June 2015, accompanied by ongoing Turkish involvement in the Syrian Civil War and harassment of Kurdish parties in Turkey.

Operation Claw-Eagle

Turkish Armed Forces bombed

Sinjar Sinjar ( ar, سنجار, Sinjār; ku, شنگال, translit=Şingal, syr, ܫܝܓܪ, Shingar) is a town in the Sinjar District of the Nineveh Governorate in northern Iraq. It is located about five kilometers south of the Sinjar Mountains. Its p ...

and destroyed multiple

PKK The Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK is a Kurdish militant political organization and armed guerrilla movement, which historically operated throughout Kurdistan, but is now primarily based in the mountainous Kurdish-majority regions of sout ...

camps near Yezedi villages. According to the locals, there were fears of ethnic cleansing and

genocide Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Lat ...

by the Turkish State towards Yezidi's. The Turkish government claimed that fighter jets destroyed caves in the Qandil Mountains used by the

. The airstrikes also struck near

Makhmour refugee camp The Makhmur refugee camp (also spelled Makhmour) was founded in 1998, and is located in the Makhmur District, some 60 Km southwest to Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRG). About 12,000 Kurdish refugees, who fled the civil war ...

, which hosts thousands of Turkish Kurd refugees who fled the conflict in the 1990s, as well as

Yezidi Yazidis or Yezidis (; ku, ئێزیدی, translit=Êzidî) are a Kurmanji-speaking endogamous minority group who are indigenous to Kurdistan, a geographical region in Western Asia that includes parts of Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran. The ma ...

villages in

. The Turkish

Ministry of National Defense {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...

released a video of the airstrikes, claiming 81 targets were destroyed. On 25 June, a drone strike killed one or two PKK fighters outside a shop in Kuna Masi north of

Sulaymaniyah Sulaymaniyah, also spelled as Slemani ( ku, سلێمانی, Silêmanî, ar, السليمانية, as-Sulaymāniyyah), is a city in the east of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, not far from the Iran–Iraq border. It is surrounded by the Azmar, G ...

, and injured six nearby civilians in the marketplace (two men, two women, and two children). Four of the wounded are in serious condition in Qalachwan Hospital.

Operation Claw-Tiger

On 17 June,

Turkish Land Forces The Turkish Land Forces ( tr, Türk Kara Kuvvetleri), or Turkish Army (Turkish: ), is the main branch of the Turkish Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. The army was formed on November 8, 1920, after the collapse of the ...

launched a ground operation in the Haftanin region of Iraqi Kurdistan. Units of the Hakkari Mountain and Commando Brigade and 1st Commando Brigade were airlifted across the

Iraq–Turkey border The Iraq–Turkey border ( ku, Sînorê raqê–Tirkiye, ar, الحدود العراقية التركية, translit= alhudud aleiraqiat alturkia, tr, Irak–Türkiye sınırı) is 367 km (228 mi) in length and runs from the tripoint with ...

Iranian cooperation

On 16 June, the

Iranian military The Islamic Republic of Iran Armed Forces, are the combined military forces of Iran, comprising the Islamic Republic of Iran Army (''Arteš''), the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (''Sepâh'') and the Law Enforcement Force (Police). Iran ...

shelled the Choman area of the Qandil Mountains, an attack that is believed to have been coordinated with the simultaneous Turkish airstrikes. The collaboration is said to materialize known alliances between Turkey and Iran.

Domestic reactions

Iraq

The parliament of the Kurdistan region criticized the attacks while Iraq demanded that Turkey stops violating the Iraqi airspace and terrorizing the population in the area. In August 2020, Iraq canceled a ministerial meeting and summoned the Turkish ambassador as Iraq blamed Turkey for a drone strike that killed two high-ranking Iraqi military officers. Officials called it a "blatant Turkish drone attack" in the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq.

International reactions

UN-member countries

In June 2020, the

United States Commission on International Religious Freedom The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is a U.S. federal government commission created by the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) of 1998. USCIRF Commissioners are appointed by the President and the lead ...

accused Turkey that it threatened Yazidis families who attempted to return to their homes in the

. Turkey rejected the claims.

International organizations

The Arab League condemned the operation based on violation of Iraq's sovereign space. Turkey criticized the declaration, on the claim of

itself affecting Iraq's sovereignty.

Protests

Protests condemning the airstrikes were held in Duhok province but also in several countries in Europe. In

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

a Kurdish protester forced a car transporting

Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...

to stop in order to raise awareness to the situation of the Kurds in Iraqi Kurdistan.

References

{{Reflist 2020 airstrikes 2020 in international relations 2020 in Iraq Airstrikes conducted by the Turkish Air Force Cross-border operations of Turkey into Iraq June 2020 events in Iraq Kurdish–Turkish conflict (2015–present) Military operations involving Iran Iran–Turkey relations