Turkey strikes 32 Kurdish militant targets in northern Iraq and Syria after accusing PKK of 'terror attack'

Hours after being jolted by a terror attack, Turkey said that it has launched strikes on Kurdish militant targets in Iraq and Syria. The strikes were conducted shortly after Ankara blamed the militant group for the terror attack that killed five people at the Turkish Aerospace Industries campus.

The Turkish defence ministry said in a statement that the country’s airforce has struck 32 targets associated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). It is pertinent to note that the Turkish separatist group have fought a decades-long insurgency in Turkey. The attack came after Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said that it was “very likely” that the PKK carried out the assault.

The Kurdish group is already recognised as a terrorist group by the US and the European Union. Yerlikaya said special operations units, police and gendarmerie responded at the scene. Two terrorists had also been “neutralised” following their strike on the facility, he added, Turkish state news agency Anadolu reported. Meanwhile, the Turkish defence ministry is yet to provide the exact locations of the Wednesday airstrikes.

How the attack went down

While attending the BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan condemned the incident. “I condemn this heinous terrorist attack and pray to God for mercy on our martyrs,” he said. The country’s Defence Minister Yasar Guler referred to PKK as “villains”.

“As they always do, they tried to disturb our nation’s peace through a despicable and dishonourable attack… we will make them suffer for what they have done,” he said. Meanwhile, Turkey’s vice-president Cevdet Yilmaz noted that four of the victims killed in the strike were TAI employees while the fifth was a taxi driver.

An unconfirmed report by private channel NTV said a “group of terrorists” had burst into the building, one of whom “blew himself up” while other outlets reported exchanges of fire for more than an hour. As per the reports, there was a “hostage situation” in the area before the terrorists were neutralised.

Sabah newspaper published what it said was a CCTV image from the entrance showing a black-clad young man with a moustache carrying a rucksack and what appeared to be an assault rifle. While speaking to Erdogan, Russian President Vladimir Putin also offered his “condolences in connection with the terror attack” at the start of their meeting.

With inputs from agencies.