TURKEY’S anticipated invasion of Iraqi Kurdistan began on Sunday night with helicopters, drones and jets pummelling Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) positions in the Metina mountain range.

Defence Minister Hulusi Akar announced Operation Claw Lock as the latest phase of Ankara’s military intervention against the Kurdish resistance group, saying that all initial targets had been achieved. 

Shelters, bunkers, caves, tunnels, ammunition depots and headquarters belonging to the PKK had been struck, he claimed, with commandos entering the region “by infiltration by land.”