Turkish warplanes carried out new airstrikes against suspected Kurdish militant sites in northern Iraq on Tuesday, days after a suicide attack in the Turkish capital. Police, meanwhile, detained almost 1,000 people in raids across Turkey.
A defense ministry statement said the air raids hit 16 targets, including caves, shelters and depots, used by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK in the neighboring region. It said the operation aimed to protect Turkey’s borders and prevent terror attacks.
It was Turkey’s second cross-border aerial operation against PKK targets in northern Iraq since the attack in Ankara on Sunday.
Earlier, police conducted raids in several Turkish provinces, detaining close to 1,000 people, including dozens with alleged links to Kurdish militants. An opposition news anchor was also briefly detained.
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Turkey hits Kurdish militant targets in Iraq and detains about 1,000 people days after Ankara blast
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Iraqi villagers live in fear as Turkey intensified cross-border airstrikes on suspected targets of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK in northern Iraq.
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BY SUZAN FRASER AND ROBERT BADENDIECK
Updated 12:15 AM GMT+4:30, October 4, 2023
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ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish warplanes carried out new airstrikes against suspected Kurdish militant sites in northern Iraq on Tuesday, days after a suicide attack in the Turkish capital. Police, meanwhile, detained almost 1,000 people in raids across Turkey.
A defense ministry statement said the air raids hit 16 targets, including caves, shelters and depots, used by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK in the neighboring region. It said the operation aimed to protect Turkey’s borders and prevent terror attacks.
It was Turkey’s second cross-border aerial operation against PKK targets in northern Iraq since the attack in Ankara on Sunday.
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Earlier, police conducted raids in several Turkish provinces, detaining close to 1,000 people, including dozens with alleged links to Kurdish militants. An opposition news anchor was also briefly detained.
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Turkey strikes suspected Kurdish militant targets in northern Iraq after suicide attack in Ankara
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said that 55 people suspected of being part of the PKK’s “intelligence structure” were detained in 16 provinces. At least 12 other suspected PKK members were rounded up in a separate operation in five provinces, Yerlikaya wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
The PKK claimed responsibility for the suicide attack, according to a news website close to the group. The group has led a decades-long insurgency in Turkey and is considered a terror organization by the United States and the European Union. Tens of thousands of people have died since the start of the conflict in 1984.
The interior minister later said that an additional 928 people suspected of holding unlicensed firearms or being connected to firearms smuggling were arrested during the operation, but he didn’t immediately make it clear if the suspects arrested for illegal firearms were suspected of connections to the PKK.