Turkey is determined to destroy all terrorist targets near its borders, if the countries harboring the terrorists fail to do so, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Friday, as he pledged to wipe terrorists off the map in Sinjar and Qandil regions in northern Iraq.
Speaking at an opening ceremony of multiple projects in western Manisa province, Erdoğan said they are determined to eradicate terrorism beyond Turkey's borders.
The president recalled Operation Euphrates Shield -- an anti-Daesh operation of the Free Syrian Army backed by Turkish military -- in northern Syria that cleared Daesh terrorists from Jarabulus and Al-Bab earlier this year and also the ongoing military deployment in another Syrian city of Idlib.
"Currently, many places in Iraq and Syria are nests for terrorists" Erdoğan said, adding that Turkey will not hesitate to strike the terrorists in those regions posing direct threat to national security.
"We will destroy every terror camp we identify in Iraq and Syria," he said.
There is "nothing more important for us than the survival of our country and nation," he said.
"It is our fundamental right to hit terrorists wherever they are located," he added.
"No rightful state would let its soldiers, personnel work side by side with terrorists" Erdoğan said.
The president noted that nine Turkish security personnel have been killed in the past two days, and Turkish security forces killed 55 PKK terrorists in the meantime.
"Unmanned aerial vehicles, armed unmanned aerial vehicles and F16 jets are currently carrying out operations [against the PKK] in the southeast" Erdoğan said, adding that the anti-terror operations will target more terrorists.
