Baghdad: Turkey's military operation in Iraq threat to national security

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Iraq's Presidency released a statement on Tuesday, denouncing Turkey's operation in northern Iraq.

The statement said Ankara's operation "poses a threat" to Iraq's national security.

"The presidential office is following with concern the ongoing Turkish operations on Iraqi territory in the Kurdistan region and regards them as a violation of Iraqi sovereignty and a threat to Iraq's national security," the office said in a statement.

Turkey's Defense Ministry had announced on Monday that Ankara launched a major cross-border military offensive against Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants in northern Iraq.

Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said, in a video address on Monday morning, that the operation will include an extensive airstrike campaign using jets, helicopters, and drones, as well as a ground incursion by commando troops.

Turkey claims it successfully destroyed multiple bunkers, tunnels, and ammunition depots, as well as the PKK's military headquarters, in northern Iraq's border areas of Metina, Zap, and Avashin-Basyan, before the PKK's ground forces entered Iraqi territories.

The PKK is a Kurdish militant political organization that has been fighting Ankara since 1984 in a war that has claimed more than 40,000 lives. Turkey has conducted numerous military operations against the PKK, which is based in northern Iraq.

Yesterday, during a speech at the ruling AK Party headquarters in Ankara, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed the war in Ukraine, which he says highlighted Turkey's importance to the West and stressed that Turkey's goal amid this conflict is to act as a mediator between the two warring sides.