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On March 22, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) released video footage showing three more Turkish combat drones being shot down by its fighters over the northern Iraqi autonomous region of Kurdistan.
The PKK first announced that it had obtained an anti-aircraft missile system that can engage and defeat Turkish drones flying at high altitudes on March 20. The Kurdish guerilla group didn’t unveil the system or reveal how it was able to obtain it, but said that it was able to down 15 drones over Kurdistan between February 13 of last year and March 1.
At the time, the PKK released video footage showing four drones being shot down and said that most of the other operations were documented.
The new video released by the group shows three more drones being shot down over northern Iraq at different times last year. The three drones were identified as an Anka, a Bayraktar TB2 and an Aksungur. These are some of the most advanced drones manufactured by Turkey.
The PKK is designated as a terrorist group by Turkey. The group has been waging an insurgency against the country for around four decades.
The Turkish Ministry of National Defense has not yet confirmed, or denied losing any combat drone to PKK fire over Kurdistan.
However, reports in Turkish media accused Iran of providing the group with the weapons needed to engage combat drones.
Yahya Bostan, a Turkish columnist with access to the government, wrote on March 22 that the PKK had acquired “kamikaze” suicide drone technology to try to target Turkish drones.
“The terror group accessed this tech through Bafel Talabani,” he said in an article that appeared on government-aligned Yeni Safak daily, referencing the leader of one of the two major Iraqi Kurdish political parties.
The journalist added that Iran had been indirectly supporting the PKK, something that has been bothering Ankara for a while.
Iran does possess several air defense systems that could defeat Turkish combat drones, including a missile-drone hybrid identified by the U.S. military and intelligence as the “358” missile. It is said to have a range of 150 kilometers. The missile was spotted in Iraq before, but only with Shia armed factions linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
It is not clear why Iran would support the PKK, especially that it is at odds with its branch in Syria, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which is allied with the United States.
Still, it is interesting that while the PKK has clearly managed to shut down some Turkish drones over northern Iraq, the SDF is yet to target a single one over its areas in northern and eastern Syria.
All in all, the Turkish accusation against Iran may be nothing but false speculations or propaganda. The PKK might have obtained advanced anti-aircraft missiles from the blackmarket in Ukraine. In fact, leaked U.S. intelligence documents from last year revealed that the Ukrainian intelligence had offered the SDF in Syria air defense systems in exchange for cooperation against the Russian military.
