Turkey attacked nearly 30 “terrorist targets” in northern Iraq and Syria on Friday night into Saturday after nine of its soldiers were killed in an exchange of fire with what Ankara said were Kurdish forces.
The soldiers were killed during clashes that followed an attempted intrusion at a base near the northern Iraqi city of Metina, the Turkish Defence Ministry said.
The assailants were presumed to be members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), private Turkish channel NTV reported.
On Friday night, there was an attempted infiltration of a military base in northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region that killed five soldiers. Four others died later of injuries. The Turkish Defence Ministry said 15 militants were also killed.
“Air operations were carried out on terrorist targets in the regions of Metina, Hakurk, Gara and Qandil,” the ministry said in a statement. It did not specify areas in Syria.
The ministry said the strikes had targeted 29 locations including “caves, bunkers, shelters and oil installations” belonging to the PKK and the YPG (People's Protection Units), a Syrian Kurdish militia which is a central element of US-allied forces in a coalition against ISIS.
The ministry's statement added “many” militants were “neutralised” in the strikes.
In the past 25 years, Turkey installed several dozen military bases in Iraqi Kurdistan to fight the PKK, which also has rear bases in the area.
One hundred and thirteen people were arrested for suspected links with the PKK in nationwide raids on Saturday, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on X.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan expressed his condolences for the deaths of the Turkish soldiers on X.
“We will fight to the end against the PKK terrorist organisation within and outside our borders,” he wrote.
Twelve Turkish soldiers were killed in late December in two separate attacks on Turkish military bases in northern Iraq.
Turkey, the US and the EU have designated the PKK a terrorist organisation.
However, the US supports the Syrian Democratic Forces YPG in their fight against ISIS, but Turkey views the group that dominate the SDF as an offshoot of the PKK.
The PKK has been locked in a decades-long conflict with Ankara over Kurdish autonomy.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Company profile
Company: Eighty6
Date started: October 2021
Founders: Abdul Kader Saadi and Anwar Nusseibeh
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Hospitality
Size: 25 employees
Funding stage: Pre-series A
Investment: $1 million
Investors: Seed funding, angel investors
Without Remorse
Directed by: Stefano Sollima
Starring: Michael B Jordan
4/5
Stormy seas
Weather warnings show that Storm Eunice is soon to make landfall. The videographer and I are scrambling to return to the other side of the Channel before it does. As we race to the port of Calais, I see miles of wire fencing topped with barbed wire all around it, a silent ‘Keep Out’ sign for those who, unlike us, aren’t lucky enough to have the right to move freely and safely across borders.
We set sail on a giant ferry whose length dwarfs the dinghies migrants use by nearly a 100 times. Despite the windy rain lashing at the portholes, we arrive safely in Dover; grateful but acutely aware of the miserable conditions the people we’ve left behind are in and of the privilege of choice.
What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
Your rights as an employee
The government has taken an increasingly tough line against companies that fail to pay employees on time. Three years ago, the Cabinet passed a decree allowing the government to halt the granting of work permits to companies with wage backlogs.
The new measures passed by the Cabinet in 2016 were an update to the Wage Protection System, which is in place to track whether a company pays its employees on time or not.
If wages are 10 days late, the new measures kick in and the company is alerted it is in breach of labour rules. If wages remain unpaid for a total of 16 days, the authorities can cancel work permits, effectively shutting off operations. Fines of up to Dh5,000 per unpaid employee follow after 60 days.
Despite those measures, late payments remain an issue, particularly in the construction sector. Smaller contractors, such as electrical, plumbing and fit-out businesses, often blame the bigger companies that hire them for wages being late.
The authorities have urged employees to report their companies at the labour ministry or Tawafuq service centres — there are 15 in Abu Dhabi.
THE%20SWIMMERS
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