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Turkish warplanes strike PKK targets in northern Iraq

Xinhua, March 23, 2016 Adjust font size:

Turkish warplanes bombed the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) targets in northern Iraq Wednesday, said a Turkish military statement.

A total of 13 F-16s and F-4 2020 fighters bombed the PKK's Hakkurk region targets in northern Iraq on Wednesday, destroying ammunition depots, bunkers and shelters, according to the statement released by the Turkish Armed Forces General Staff.

The airstrikes against PKK posts in Iraq escalated following the suicide car bomb attacks in the capital city of Ankara on March 13 which killed 37 people.

The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK), a Kurdish militant group linked to the PKK, has claimed responsibility for that attack.

On Feb. 17, a separate suicide car bomb targeted military shuttles in Ankara, killing at least 29 people and injuring 81 others. TAK claimed responsibility for this attack as well.

The Turkish Interior Ministry stated that one of the suspected bombers, identified as 24-year-old Seher Cagla Demir, was trained in Syria by the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), the Syrian by-product of the PKK.

A two-year ceasefire between the government and the PKK disintegrated in July 2015, and Turkish security forces launched a major campaign against the PKK in southeast Turkey.

Over 260 members of Turkey's security forces and thousands of PKK members have been killed since last July during armed conflict in both Turkey and in northern Iraq.

The PKK, waging its separatist war against Turkey since 1984, is listed as terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. Endit