With heat from the United States, France and even Russia, Turkey is being discouraged from pursuing further action right now in northern Syria and is instead focusing on Iraq in its fight against Kurdish militants. In addition, with the Kurdish groups pulling out of Iraq's Sinjar region, Turkey no longer has an excuse to launch a military operation there — so Ankara for now has to be content with conducting low-profile military missions around other parts of Iraqi Kurdistan.

Since the end of March, Turkish commandos have been quietly putting up military outposts in the mountainous Sidekan area of Iraq, north of Hakurk, which is adjacent to the Qandil Mountains, where the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) has its main headquarters. Turkey and other countries, including the United States, consider the PKK a terrorist organization.

Turkish warplanes in the past six months have frequently attacked Sidekan, where the PKK has many temporary and fixed bases south of Turkey’s Semdinli that the PKK uses to infiltrate Turkey.

Turkey plans to place temporary military bases along and inside the boundary of Iraqi Kurdistan. "Turkey has now entered 20 kilometers [12 miles] deep into the Kurdistan Region,” Iraqi Kurdistan-based Rudaw news reported April 6.