Turkey\u2019s Air Force has struck Kurdish targets in Iraq and Syria in apparent retaliation for an attack on a key state-run defence company that killed five people and wounded more than 20.<\/p>\n
The Ministry of National Defence said 32 targets were \u201cdestroyed\u201d in the aerial offensive on Wednesday, without providing details on the locations that were hit. It said \u201call kinds of precautions\u201d were taken to prevent harm to civilians.<\/p>\n
The strikes came hours after suspected Kurdish fighters set off explosives and opened fire at the aerospace and defence company TUSAS, which designs, manufactures and assembles civilian and military aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and other defence industry and space systems<\/p>\n
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said the Kurdistan Workers\u2019 Party (PKK) was believed to be behind the attack. Defence Minister Yasar Guler also pointed his finger at the PKK.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe give these PKK scoundrels the punishment they deserve every time. But they never come to their senses,\u201d Guler said. \u201cWe will pursue them until the last terrorist is eliminated.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was no immediate statement from the PKK.<\/p>\n
The assault came a day after Devlet Bahceli \u2013 the leader of Turkey\u2019s far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) allied with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan\u2019s Justice and Development Party (AKP) \u2013 raised the possibility that the PKK\u2019s imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan could be granted parole if he renounces violence and disbands his organisation.<\/p>\n
Erdogan said during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of a meeting of the BRICS developing economies in Russia that he condemned the \u201cheinous terrorist attack\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Iraqi embassy in Ankara issued a statement condemning the attack on TUSAS.<\/p>\n
It said it \u201caffirms Iraq\u2019s firm position in rejecting terrorism and extremism in all its forms and manifestations, and expresses the solidarity of Iraq\u2019s government and people, with the government and people of the Republic of Turkey\u201d. Earlier this year, Iraq announced a ban on the PKK.<\/p>\n
Turkey regularly conducts air strikes against the PKK in Iraq and against a Kurdish group in Syria affiliated with the PKK.<\/p>\n
The UAVs produced by TUSAS have been instrumental in Turkey gaining the upper hand in its fight against Kurdish fighters.<\/p>\n
Ocalan\u2019s group has been fighting for autonomy in southeastern Turkey in a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people since the 1980s. It is considered a terrorist group by Turkey and its Western allies.<\/p>\n
The country\u2019s main pro-Kurdish DEM party, which also condemned the TUSAS attack, noted that it had occurred at a time when the possibility of a dialogue to end the conflict had emerged.<\/p>\n
Reporting from Ankara, Al Jazeera\u2019s Sinem Koseoglu said \u201cmany now question whether there is still room for peace.\u201d<\/p>\n
Source: Al-Jazeera<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Turkey\u2019s Air Force has struck Kurdish targets in Iraq and Syria in apparent retaliation for an attack on a key state-run defence company that killed five people and wounded more than 20. The Ministry of National Defence said 32 targets were \u201cdestroyed\u201d in the aerial offensive on Wednesday, without providing details on the locations that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":80253,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80252"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80252"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80254,"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80252\/revisions\/80254"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}