Turkey bombs Kurdish targets in Iraq and Syria after terrorist attack in Ankara
The Turkish air force has bombed several Kurdish military targets in northern Iraq and Syria in retaliation for an attack on the state-owned aerospace and defence company TUSAS that left five dead and more than 20 wounded.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya blamed the Kurdistan Workers' Party for the attack, which was carried out by a man and a woman, both of whom were eliminated by Turkish security forces. The attackers, whom Yerlikaya identified as ‘PKK members’, detonated explosives and opened fire at the Ankara-based company.
The Kurdish group has claimed responsibility for the attack, calling it an ‘act of sacrifice’.
In response, the Defence Ministry announced that more than 30 targets were destroyed in Kurdish areas of Iraq and Syria, taking ‘every precaution’ to avoid harming civilians. ‘We always give the PKK the punishment they deserve. We will pursue them until the last terrorist is eliminated,' said Defence Minister Yasar Guler.
The Turkish army has maintained its offensive a day after the attack, shelling ‘strategic locations’ used by the PKK, state news agency Anadolu reports. These targets include military, intelligence, energy and infrastructure facilities and ammunition depots.
#Kobane esta noche bajo ataques turcos#Rojava pic.twitter.com/hZtiFNANSz
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The Kurdish-led, US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), meanwhile, claimed that attacks carried out by Turkish warplanes and drones targeted ‘bakeries, power plants, oil facilities and local police checkpoints’, leaving 12 civilians dead, including 2 children, and 25 wounded.
As the SDF said in a statement, ‘this barbaric aggression demonstrates Turkey's hostility against the (Kurdish) people in northeast Syria’ and reflects the ‘threat posed by Turkey's criminal mentality to peace and stability in the region’. ‘Turkey is trying to export its internal crises at the expense of the Kurdish people, causing chaos and raising tensions,’ the Kurdish forces added, assuring that they ‘will not hesitate to do their job to protect the Kurdish people and the regions‘.
Turkey regularly launches air strikes against the PKK in Iraq, as well as a Kurdish militia group in Syria linked to the organisation, which is considered a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the US and the EU.
The targeted company, TUSAS, designs, manufactures and assembles civilian and military aircraft, drones and other space and defence systems. Its unmanned aerial vehicles have been instrumental in Ankara's fight against Kurdish militants. In this regard, Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz said the target of the attack was ‘Turkey's success in the defence industry’.
As AP reports, the terrorist attack came a day after the leader of Turkey's far-right nationalist party, an ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, raised the possibility that jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan could be granted parole if he renounces violence and disbands his organisation, which aims for Kurdish autonomy in southeastern Turkey.
