Turkey claims Kurdish militants used paramotor to reach Hatay for attacks

Turkey claims Kurdish militants used paramotor to reach Hatay for attacks
Turkey claims to have killed two Kurdish militants in anti-terror raids.
2 min read
27 October, 2020
One militant detonated a bomb belt in Hatay [Getty]
Hatay Governor Rahmi Dogan has claimed that Kurdish militants used a paramotor to cross from northern Syria into Turkey, as anti-terror units launched a raid in the southern province.

Turkish state media posted images of the powered paraglider it claims was used by militants from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) to fly from Kurdish-controlled Syrian city of Manbij to the Nur Mountains in Hatay province.

Broadcaster TRT alleged that the paramotor was to be used in planned attacks by the militants.

"Turkish security forces recover a paramotor glider used by the PKK/YPG terror group to infiltrate Turkey with the intention of carrying out suicide attacks," the Turkish broadcaster claimed on its Twitter page.

Turkish media said that two Kurdish fighters were killed in a raid by anti-terror units in Hatay province on Monday.

Dogan said that one of the militants died when they detonated a bomb belt and the other was killed at the end of a police chase.

"As of today, the PKK terrorist organisation has been destroyed in the Amanos region and there are no [members] of the PKK terrorist organisation left," Dogan said, according to TRT.
Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan praised the operation against the Kurdish group.

"I congratulate our heroic security forces for their successful counter-terrorism operation in Hatay. I wish [it] to all my Hatay brothers and sisters. May my Lord protect our country from all kinds of attacks, disasters and treacherous aspirations," he said on Twitter, according Anadolu.

The PKK had been engaged in a decades-long conflict with the Turkish state, leading to thousands of soldiers, militants and civilians killed in the fighting.

Tensions mounted when armed Kurdish groups took control of parts of the Syrian side of the Turkish border after war broke out in Syria in 2011.

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