Turkey has launched airstrikes against suspected Kurdish militant targets in Syria and Iraq after blaming the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK) for a deadly attack on the headquarters of the Turkish national aerospace company on Wednesday that killed five people.
Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization said it had targeted numerous “strategic locations” used by the PKK, or by Syrian Kurdish militia affiliated with the militants, the Anadolu Agency reported.
There was no immediate statement from the PKK on the attack or the Turkish airstrikes.
The targets included military, intelligence, energy and infrastructure facilities and ammunition depots, the report said. A security official said armed drones were used in Thursday’s strikes.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said on Thursday that Turkish airstrikes killed 12 civilians in north-east Syria.
“Over the past hours … a new wave of [Turkish] attacks on northern and eastern Syria” killed 12 civilians, including two children, and wounded 25 others, a statement from the US-backed SDF said.
“In addition to populated areas, Turkish warplanes and UAVs [drones] targeted bakeries, power stations, oil facilities and [Kurdish] Internal Security Force checkpoints,” added the statement, which also reported Turkish shelling.
On Wednesday, Turkey’s air force carried out strikes against similar targets in northern Syria and northern Iraq, hours after Turkish government officials blamed the PKK for the deadly attack at the headquarters of the aerospace and defence company Tusaş near Ankara.
More than 30 targets were destroyed in the aerial offensive, the Turkish defence ministry said.
The attack on Tusaş occurred when two assailants – a man and a woman – arrived at the firm’s headquarters in a taxi they commandeered after killing its driver, reports said.
Armed with assault rifles, the pair set off explosives and opened fire, killing four people at the company, including a member of the security personnel and a mechanical engineer.
Security teams were dispatched as soon as the attack started at about 3.30pm local time, the interior minister said. The two assailants were also killed and more than 20 people were injured in the attack.
Tusaş designs, manufactures and assembles civilian and military aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and other defence industry and space systems. Its defence systems have been credited as key to Turkey gaining an upper hand in its fight against Kurdish militants.
The attack occurred a day after the head of a far-right nationalist party allied to the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, raised the possibility that the PKK’s imprisoned leader could be granted parole if he renounced violence and disbanded his organisation.
Abdullah Öcalan’s PKK has been fighting for autonomy in south-east Turkey in a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people since the 1980s. It is considered a terrorist group by Turkey and the country’s western allies.
Associated Press and AFP contributed to this report
