ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey carried out air strikes against Kurdish militants in northern Iraq overnight, hitting dozens of targets for the second night in a row, the Defence Ministry said on Friday, after a gun attack that killed five people in Ankara.
The operation followed a security meeting that President Tayyip Erdogan chaired with key ministers and the armed forces and intelligence agency chiefs in Istanbul on Thursday evening.
The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged an insurgency in southeast Turkey for four decades, claimed responsibility on Friday for Wednesday’s attack in Ankara.
Turkey hit 34 PKK targets in Hakurk, Gara, Qandil and Sinjar in northern Iraq, destroying shelters, warehouses and other facilities, and “neutralising” a large number of militants, the ministry said.
Security sources said separately that Turkey’s National Intelligence Organisation (MIT) had hit a total of 120 PKK targets in Iraq and Syria since the attack in Ankara.
On Wednesday, two assailants – a man and a woman – armed with automatic rifles and explosives attacked the headquarters of Turkish Aerospace Industries (TUSAS) in Ankara. Five people were killed and 22 others were wounded in the attack.
Both attackers were killed. Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said later that they were confirmed to be PKK members.
Turkish media on Friday reported Erdogan as saying on his return from the BRICS summit in Russia that the perpetrators of the attack had infiltrated from Syria.
The attack came a day after a key ally of Erdogan said the PKK’s jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan may be allowed to speak in Turkey’s parliament, if he announces an end to the group’s insurgency, in exchange for the possibility of being released.
Separately, Turkish police detained 176 suspected PKK members in operations across Turkey, Yerlikaya said on Friday.
The PKK took up arms against the Turkish state 40 years ago and more than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict. It is designated a terrorist group by Turkey and its Western allies.
(Reporting by Huseyin Hayatsever, Ece Toksabay and Tuvan Gumrukcu; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Gareth Jones)
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