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The Spanish authorities decided to close one of their military bases in Iraq and withdraw their troops from Afghanistan, El Pais reported.
Troops serving at the Bismayah training camp in Iraq are expected to return to Spain by the end of July. Currently, there are 350 Spanish troops at this base. For five years, they have helped train Iraqi soldiers and law enforcement officers. Since 2015, 17 army brigades and 10 police units (totaling more than 50 thousand people) have been trained here.
Greece has lodged a protest over Turkish troops’ occupation of a small patch of swampland along the land border between the two NATO member nations.
Nevertheless, dozens of Turkish soldiers and police remain planted there, defying demands that they retreat. The confrontation is the latest in escalating tension between the two age-old rivals.
Turkish airstrikes killed four members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in northern Iraq and six others across Turkey, said Turkey’s defense and interior ministries on Thursday.
“Four PKK terrorists were neutralized in Hakurk, Zap and Haftanin regions in an air-backed operation after determined by means of reconnaissance and surveillance. Our operations continue without pausing,” said the ministry in its Twitter account.
The Turkish-backed militants in northeastern Syria were involved in a deadly firefight with one another on Sunday, resulting in several dead and wounded, Kurdistan 24 reported.
According to the publication, at least eight Turkish-backed militants were killed during the firefight, with many more reportedly wounded as a result of the violence in the Al-Hasakah Governorate town of Ras Al-‘Ain.
Turkey claimed on Saturday that its army has “neutralized” tens of fighters from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in days of clashes in northern Syria, despite the country’s agreement to two ceasefires in the area last October.
The Turkish defense ministry said on Saturday morning it had “neutralized” 24 members of the People’s Protection Units (YPG), a Kurdish armed group which makes up most of the SDF.