ANKARA

Türkiye neutralized some 184 PKK/YPG terrorists as part of its cross-border anti-terror efforts, the country's minister of national defense chief said on Monday.

Early on Sunday, Turkish forces launched Operation Claw-Sword, a cross-border aerial campaign against the PKK/YPG, which has illegal hideouts in northern Iraq and northern Syria, where they plan attacks on Turkish soil.

"Since the beginning of Operation Claw-Sword, 184 terrorists have been neutralized by ground fire support vehicles and aircraft," Hulusi Akar said at the operations center of the Land Forces Command in the capital Ankara.

Akar said 89 targets, including shelters, bunkers, caves, tunnels, and warehouses belonging to terrorists, were destroyed in the first phase of the operation.

"The Turkish Armed Forces is showing (a level of) sensitivity that no army has shown in order not to harm civilians, the environment, historical, cultural, and religious structures, both in the planning and execution of activities. The Turkish army will do whatever needs to be done in line with all these sensitivities until the end," he asserted.

Akar also informed President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the latest developments in the operation.