Turkey bombs Kurdish militants in Iraq and Syria for second day
Turkey has struck Kurdish militant hotspots in Iraq and Syria for a second day in retaliation for the deadly attack in Ankara that killed at least five people, reports TheNewArab and Agencies.
On the 24th October Erdogan’s intelligence forces targeted numerous “strategic locations” used by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and by Syrian Kurdish, a militia affiliated with the militants, according to the Anadolu Agency.
Armed drones were used to target military, intelligence, energy and infrastructure facilities and ammunition depots the report said.
On the 23rd October, Turkey’s air force carried out strikes on similar locations in northern Iraq and northern Syria, just hours after the government blamed the PKK for the attacks.
More than 30 targets were destroyed in the aerial offensive the defence ministry said.
READ: Iraq strengthens ties with Turkey by banning PKK
Earlier that day an assault on the aerospace and defence company TUSAS on the outskirts of Ankara left four people dead and 20 injured.
The assailants, a man and a woman, arrived in a taxi at around 3:30pm after commandeering the car and killing the driver.
Armed with assault rifles, the pair set off explosives and opened fire, killing four people including a security guard and a mechanical engineer.
Security teams were dispatched and the two assailants were killed in the ensuing firefight the interior minister Ali Yerlikaya said.
There was no immediate statement from the PKK on the attack or the Turkish airstrikes.
READ: Turkey closes Syria border post after clashes
TUSAS has been credited with helping Turkey gain an upper hand in its fight against Kurdish militants.
The company designs, manufactures, and assembles civilian and military aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles, and other defence industry and space systems.
The attack occurred a day after Devlet Bahçeli, the leader of Turkey’s far-right nationalist party, proposed that the PKK’s imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan be granted parole if he disbands his organisation.
Ocalan’s group, considered a terrorist organisation by Turkey and its Western allies, has been fighting for autonomy in south-east Turkey.
The conflict, which has dragged on since the 1980s, has killed tens of thousands of people and alleged atrocities on civilians have been committed on both sides of the bitter feud.
TheNewArab/Agencies
