- Ankara bombing claims lives
- Turkiye strikes PKK in Iraq
- Arrests made in Istanbul
Turkiye reportedly launched airstrikes against militant targets in northern Iraq and arrested suspects in Istanbul overnight, mere hours after Kurdish militants claimed responsibility for the first bombing in Ankara in years.
On Sunday morning, two assailants detonated a bomb near government facilities in Ankara, resulting in their deaths and injuries to several. The terrorist organization Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) claimed responsibility.
In Iraq’s Metina, Hakurk, Qandil, and Gara regions, the defense ministry reported that airstrikes obliterated 20 caves, shelters, and PKK depots, effectively neutralizing a large number of PKK militants.
In recent years, Turkey has intensified its military operations against the PKK in northern Iraq, citing its right to self-defense under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter.
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Turkey, the United States, and the European Union have all labeled the PKK a terrorist organization. It began an insurgency in the southeast of Turkey in 1984, resulting in the deaths of more than 40,000 people.
On Sunday, Reuters footage showed a vehicle drive up to the interior ministry’s main entrance in Ankara, sending one occupant sprinting towards the building before exploding.
The bomb and security forces killed the other assailant, according to the interior minister. The explosion shook a district containing ministries and the parliament, coinciding with the resumption of the legislature.
One assailant has been identified as a PKK member, and work is ongoing to identify the second, according to a statement from the interior ministry, which also noted that explosives, grenades, a rocket launcher, and various firearms were seized at the scene.
Reports stated that hijackers seized the vehicle and killed its driver in Kayseri, a city 260 kilometers (160 miles) southeast of Ankara.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced on Monday that anti-terrorist police in Istanbul and elsewhere have apprehended twenty individuals in operations targeting PKK-affiliated suspects.
Yerlikaya stated on messaging platform X that a provincial Kurdish spokesman and district heads of a prominent pro-Kurdish political party were among those detained on suspicion of collecting aid and providing shelter for PKK members.
The PKK-affiliated ANF News website reported on Sunday that a team from the PKK’s Immortals Battalion unit was responsible for the attack.
The bombing on Ataturk Boulevard was the first in Ankara since 2016 when Kurdish militants, Islamic State, and other organizations launched a series of attacks in Turkish cities.
In recent years, the Turkish military has conducted multiple large-scale military operations against Kurdish militants in northern Iraq and northern Syria.
President Tayyip Erdogan told parliament on Sunday that Turkiye would maintain its strategy of a 30-km (19-mile) deep “security strip” beyond its southern borders with Syria and Iraq, and that “new steps” on this were a matter of time.
Asked whether Erdogan’s remarks indicated preparations for a new large-scale cross-border operation in Syria, Defence Minister Yasar Guler told reporters at a parliamentary reception that the president had not said anything “new.”
