After a bomb attack in Ankara
Türkiye attacks suspected PKK positions in northern Iraq from the air
Updated on October 2nd, 2023 – 1:53 a.m. Reading time: 3 min.
State of emergency in Ankara: Footage shows the incident on Sunday morning. (Source: t-online)
There was a bomb attack near the Turkish parliament for which the PKK claimed responsibility. Turkey responds with an air strike in northern Iraq.
A few hours after an attack in Ankara, Turkish warplanes carried out air strikes in northern Iraq. Among other things, the village of Badran was bombed, a mayor in the region told the AFP news agency on Sunday evening. The Turkish Defense Ministry said it had bombed 20 positions of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in northern Iraq.
“Air strikes were carried out against the “PKK and other terrorist elements” in the regions of Metina, Hakurk, Kandil and Gara in northern Iraq “in order to prevent terrorist attacks from northern Iraq on our population and our law enforcement forces and to ensure the security of our borders ” said the statement.
On Sunday morning, two police officers were slightly injured in an attack in Ankara that the PKK claimed responsibility for. One attacker blew himself up in front of the entrance to the Interior Ministry and another was shot in the head. Two police officers were slightly injured in the exchange of fire after the explosion. Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya reported that they were receiving medical treatment and that their lives were not in danger.
The action was a reaction to Turkey’s actions in Kurdish areas, the PKK-affiliated news agency ANF quoted a report by the HPG, the PKK’s military wing, on Sunday.
Already thousands of people killed
Thousands of people have been killed in the decades-long conflict between the PKK and the Turkish state. Ankara regularly carries out military operations against the PKK in southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq. This in turn repeatedly carries out attacks, especially on Turkish security forces. But civilians also die.
Turkey accuses the PKK of endangering national security and unity through terror. The PKK argues that it is fighting, among other things, for the “rights of the Kurds” and against oppression. In 2015, a peace process between Türkiye and the PKK failed.
According to the Interior Ministry, the suspected attackers approached the entrance door of the ministry’s security directorate in a van and carried out an explosive attack there. According to government information, Turkish police prevented a second explosion on Sunday.
Shots heard on video
The “Osint Defender” channel published a video on X in which gunshots can presumably be heard. A large number of military and police forces were deployed.
Turkish police bomb disposal teams carried out controlled explosions on Sunday afternoon. There was no reason to panic, the police warned the population of the Turkish capital on X. There had been incidents with “suspicious packages,” they said. The NTV broadcaster reported that the second attacker also had explosives on his person. This was blown up in a controlled manner.
Emergency services cordoned off a large area of the center. Pictures from the Reuters news agency show soldiers, ambulances, fire engines and an armored vehicle in the city center. The police blocked several streets there.
The Turkish public prosecutor’s office has now launched an investigation. In addition, a news blackout was imposed on the topic, the state news agency Anadolu reported on Sunday.
Parliament searched
According to broadcaster NTV, the explosion also occurred just a few hundred meters from an entrance to parliament. The broadcaster reported that security forces had therefore also searched the parliament itself for explosives.
This Sunday, the Turkish Parliament met after a two and a half month summer break. Parliament’s decision on Sweden’s accession to NATO is still pending and had been discussed as an item on the agenda. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan described the attack in Ankara as the “final throes of terror.” The “villains” had not achieved their goals and would never achieve them, he said in his opening speech in Parliament.
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“Our fight will continue until the last terrorist is neutralized,” emphasized Interior Minister Yerlikaya. The Attorney General’s Office also described the attack as “terrorist.”
