Turkish Ministry of Defense announced today, Thursday, at dawn that “32 targets”, the positions of the PKK and its allies, were bombed in the north of Iraq and on the territory of Syriahours after the attack in Ankara, which killed five people and was attributed to the Kurdish separatist armed movement by the Turkish authorities.
“As permitted by our right to self-defense under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, an air operation was carried out against terrorist targets in northern Iraq and Syria (…) and a total of 32 terrorist targets were successfully destroyed,” he said. ministry in the press release it issued, clarifying that “airline operations continue”.
The Minister of the Interior of Turkey, Ali Gerlikaya, said yesterday that the perpetrators of the attack in the Turkish capital are “very likely” to be members of the PKK. So far there has been no claim of responsibility.
According to the Vice President of Turkey, Cevdet Yilmaz, the five victims of the attack were four workers of the Turkish defense industry TUSAS and a taxi driver.
The criminals – a man and a woman – were “neutralized” (ie killed), according to the Minister of the Interior, Gerlikaya. Another 22 people were injured, including seven members of Turkish special forces, according to Mr Gerlikaya.