Turkey was ‘in the wars’ again on June 17, seemingly linking up with Iran to secure some extra artillery fire as it launched a major joint air and ground operation against Kurdish insurgent militants over the border in northern Iraq, and denying a French claim that it harassed a French warship on a Nato mission as “completely untrue”.

Turkish special forces, supported by jets, helicopters, drones and artillery were airlifted and deployed overland to the border region of Haftanin in Iraq in the early hours for Operation Claw-Tiger, with 150 suspected Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) positions targeted, Turkey’s defence ministry said. The attack followed Operation Claw-Eagle overnight on June 16 that amounted to a major bombing campaign on 81 suspected PKK installations across the region, including in the Yazidi homeland of Sinjar and the Qandil mountains, long known as the traditional PKK stronghold.

Peace talks between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and PKK leaders broke down in 2015. Last October, Turkey invaded areas of northeast Syria controlled by Kurdish militias it claimed were allied to the PKK after US President Donald Trump told Erdogan US forces would not stand in the way of a move against the militias that had served as US allies in the fight against Islamic State.

Reports of Iranian artillery fire on PKK hideouts in a border region in the latest operation added to speculation that this week’s military action was internationally coordinated. “We suspect that the two sides [Turkey and Iran] are in coordination, because this is the first time that Turkey has bombed this area,” the Haji Omaran district mayor, Farzang Ahmed, told the local news agency Rudaw.

The new Turkish operations across northern Iraq drew angry rebukes from both the Arab League and the federal government in Baghdad.

On June 17, Turkey’s ambassador to Baghdad was summoned to the Iraqi ministry of foreign affairs and formally reminded of the country’s “sanctity and sovereignty”.

Inside Turkey, the government has continued its crackdown on Kurdish politicians, activists and sympathisers it accuses of links to the PKK. It has replaced almost all pro-Kurdish mayors in the southeast of the country with government appointees.

A “justice and democracy” march across the country organised by the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) set off from the western town of Edirne on June 15. It was quickly met by barricades, teargas and rubber bullets from police.

A French official asserted that the French ship was harassed when it wanted to check whether the Turkish vessel Cirkin was smuggling arms to Libya. The Cirkin, the official said, switched off its tracking system, masked its ID number and refused to say where it was going.

A Turkish military official told Reuters the French warship did not establish communications with the Turkish ship during the incident. “If one takes into account that the French warship was refuelled by our side before the alleged incident, it is clear how inappropriate and intentional the allegation is,” he said.

The French foreign ministry has accused Turkey’s navy of acting in a hostile manner towards its Nato allies to prevent them from enforcing a United Nations arms embargo on Libya, where Ankara is backing the Tripoli-based GNA government in its civil war with the LNA.

“Turkey is fulfilling its obligations as an ally today as always,” the Turkish military official said. “It has saddened us that the matter has reached this stage.”