This strike comes a day after Turkish President Recep Tayyip E | GLOBAL NEWS NEXUS

This strike comes a day after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said the Turkish military would soon “clear” what he called terrorists from the northern Syrian towns of Manbij and Tel Rifaat.

This was a reference to Syria’s main Kurdish militia, known as the People’s Protection Units or YPG along with PKK.

Baghdad has always objected to Turkish presence in Iraq while Ankara justifies it for doing cross border strikes on PKK bases in Iraq. Turkey has maintained several outposts in northern Iraq since 2016 and in April Ankara began one of its largest military operations in northern Iraq against the PKK, Operation Claw-Lock.

Turkey has also launched four major operations in northern Syria since 2016, mainly against the YPG.

Ankara considers the PKK and YPG as one and the same.