If you had asked me five years ago to reveal the Kurdistan Workers Party's (PKK’s) combat inventory, I would have listed the AK-47 Kalashnikov as the personal gun used across the board, the BKC (Bixi) machine gun, the SVD Dragunov sniper rifle, a few A2/A4 US rifles, anti-tank weapons limited to RPG-7 rocket launchers, no anti-tank missiles, extremely limited access to MANPADS and shoulder-fired, ground-to-air defense missiles. The same PKK force would rely on commercially available Yaesu radios to communicate, would not be equipped with night and thermal vision optics, and would procure its uniforms and supplies locally. In short, it would be equipped for long-term, low-intensity clashes in rural terrain.

But now, because of the wars in Iraq and Syria with advanced weaponry used by all belligerents, the PKK has become a sophisticated force by diversifying its weaponry, ammunition and equipment. The Turkish military notes the PKK and its northern Syrian combat affiliate, the People's Protection Units (YPG), are gradually becoming more of a regular army by constantly improving their conventional capabilities such as armored unit tactics; artillery and rocket-fire support without line-of-sight availability; large-scale logistics movements; coordinating close air support; and providing artillery-forward observation, surveillance and reconnaissance with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and urban warfare.

Today, the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) is learning on the ground in al-Bab clashes how tough the new generation of urban warfare with the Islamic State (IS) can be. Turkish troops are experiencing major tests against the defensive model IS has developed based on tunnel warfare, anti-tank missiles and vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices, used with lethal effect in urban warfare. Ankara is now seriously considering whether the PKK will also be achieving the military technology and modern military capability levels of IS.

We had earlier seen how the PKK had developed its weaponry, ammunition and equipment inventories within its trench-barrier warfare against Turkish security forces in Cizre, Silopi, Silvan, Sur/Diyarbakir, Yuksekova and finally at Nusaybin. The weapons and equipment Turkish forces have seized in the clashes painfully show that the PKK diversification and sophistication efforts are continuing unabated.