Turkey launches Operation Kapan-2 in country's south

ANKARA-Anadolu Agency

Turkey launched Operation Kapan-2 to eliminate terrorists in the country’s south, the Interior Ministry announced on Jan. 12.

The gendarmerie command launched the counter-terrorism operation in the rural area of Hatay province, the ministry said in a statement.

A total of 623 security personnel, including gendarmerie and police forces, are taking part in the operation.

So far, a three-room shelter and three depots have been identified and an improvised explosive device and a large quantity of daily use items have been destroyed.

With Turkey ramping up its fight against terrorists, it launched on Jan. 11 Operation KAPAN to eliminate terrorists in the southeastern Mardin province, after completing Operation Kıran in the country's southeast against YPG/PKK terrorists.

On Aug. 17, Turkey launched Operation Kıran in the country's southeast against YPG/PKK terrorists in the Van, Hakkari and Şırnak provinces, followed by 10 more iterations of the operation, including operations Kıran-10 and Kıran-11.

The U.S.-backed SDF, a group dominated by the YPG, has been controlling some 28 percent of the Syrian territories, including the most of the 911-kilometer-long Syria-Turkey border.

Turkey deems the YPG the Syrian offshoot of the illegal PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization also by the United States and the European Union.