Turkey begins new airstrikes on Kurdish militants in Syria and Iraq in response to recent terrorist attack
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack at the major defense and aerospace company TUSAS in Ankara, where suspected terrorists killed five people.
Turkey has launched fresh attacks on suspected Kurdish terrorist targets in Syria and Iraq following a terrorist attack on a key defense company, its Defence Ministry said.
Just hours after the alleged terrorist attack at the defense and aerospace company TUSAS in Ankara, which left at least five people dead, the Turkish air force retaliated by striking terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) targets in northern Syria and Iraq on Wednesday.
PKK
In a post on X on Thursday, the Turkish Defence Ministry said that Turkish air strikes hit 47 terrorist targets in northern Iraq and Syria, “neutralising” 59 terrorists, including two ringleaders. Ankara typically uses the term “neutralised” to mean killed.
The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces said on Thursday that Turkish strikes in northern and eastern Syria had killed 12 civilians, including two children, and wounded 25 people.
“No member of the treacherous terrorist organization will be able to escape the grasp of Turkish soldiers,” Turkish Defence Minister Yasar Guler said on Thursday, adding that it was “not a coincidence” that TUSAS was targeted.
There has been no immediate statement or claim of responsibility from the PKK regarding the attack.
Terrorists
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Smoke rises as emergency rescue teams and police officers attend outside Turkish Aerospace Industries Inc. on the outskirts of Ankara, Turkey, on Oct. 23, 2024. IHA via AP
Suspected Kurdish terrorists set off explosives and opened fire on the afternoon of Oct. 23 at the aerospace and defense company TUSAS.
The two attackers—a man and a woman—also were killed, Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said. At least 22 people, including seven security personnel, were injured during the attack.
TUSAS designs, manufactures, and assembles civilian and military aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles, and other defense industry and space systems. Its unmanned aerial vehicles have been used to fight Kurdish terrorists.
It said that the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office has launched an investigation.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the attack.
“I condemn this heinous attack on facilities of the Turkish Aerospace Industries,” he said, speaking alongside Russian Vladimir Putin at a BRICS conference in the Russian city of Kazan.
“This cowardly attack has further strengthened Turkey’s determination to eliminate terrorism.”
On Thursday, Yerlikaya said the male attacker was confirmed to be a PKK member, while the female assailant had not yet been identified.
Marxist-Leninist Kurdish Separatists
According to the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, the U.S. State Department designated the PKK a foreign terrorist organization in 1997.
It said that the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), also known as Kongra-Gel, is a militant Marxist-Leninist Kurdish separatist group established in 1978 with the goal of creating a unified, independent Kurdistan that has been waging an armed struggle against Turkey since 1984.
The terrorist group aims to gain control of Kurdish areas of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey and has maintained its headquarters in Iraq and largely focused on attacking targets in the Kurdish-dominant region of southeast Turkey.
Since 2019, Turkey has intermittently struck PKK terrorist targets in Northern Iraq as part of its Operation Claw-Lock.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
