Turkey has launched a wave of airstrikes against Kurdish militants in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq, part of an ongoing campaign to destroy and degrade the group that has been battling the Turkish army on and off for Kurdish self-rule since 1984.

Turkey's Defense Minister Hulusi Akar announced that “terror hideouts” where attacks against “our country, our people, our police stations, our bases” were planned and carried out had been “razed to the ground” hours after Turkish jets bombed 81 separate targets.

“Our planes are bringing the caves down on the terrorists' head,” he said. The Defense Ministry shared images of the operation on Twitter. 

The airstrikes targeting the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in the area spanning the Yazidi-dominated Mount Sinjar to the west and the Qandil mountains to the east was the biggest such Turkish operation since 2015. Dozens of US-made fighter jets, locally manufactured drones and mid-air refueling and airborne communication aircraft were deployed in “Operation Claw-Eagle” that was launched late last night and supervised by Akar.