Turkey said Wednesday it had launched strikes against Kurdish militants in Iraq and Syria after blaming them for an attack that killed five people at a defense company near Ankara.
Twenty-two other people were injured in the attack, which the government said was “most likely” carried out by the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
A few hours later, “an air operation was carried out against terrorist targets in northern Iraq and Syria,” the Defense Ministry said in a statement.
“A total of 32 targets belonging to the terrorists were successfully destroyed,” the statement said, adding that operations continue.
Classified as a terrorist group by Turkey and its Western allies, the PKK has led an insurgency against the Turkish state for decades. It has several rear bases in the Kurdish regions of Iraq and Syria.
In the attack that triggered the strikes, a huge explosion rocked the headquarters of state-owned Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI), about 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of Ankara, shortly after 3:30 p.m.
It sent clouds of smoke into the air as gunshots rang out, Turkish media reported, with the incident quickly denounced by Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya as a “terrorist attack.”
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was in Russia for talks with Vladimir Putin, called the attack “heinous” against the Turkish defense industry “aimed at the survival of our country” in a message on X.
– Attackers “neutralized” –
Yerlikaya said three of the injured were in critical condition and that the two attackers, “a woman and a man”, had been “neutralized”.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but Yerlikaya said: “The way this action was carried out is most likely linked to the PKK.”
He said efforts to identify the perpetrators of the attack were ongoing.
Defense Minister Yasar Guler also pointed the finger at the “bad guys of the PKK”.
“As they always do, they attempted to disturb the peace of our nation with a despicable and dishonorable attack…we will make them suffer for what they did,” he said.
Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz said four of the victims were TAI employees and the fifth was a taxi driver. Media reports earlier said the attackers killed him and took his taxi to carry out the attack.
– World leaders condemn attack –
According to unconfirmed information from the private channel NTV, a “group of terrorists” burst into the building, one of whom “blew himself up”, while other media reported exchanges of fire for more than an hour.
Haberturk TV said there was a “hostage situation”, with another media pundit saying “a number of hostages” had been rescued.
Turkish authorities imposed the removal of live images from the scene.
The Sabah newspaper published what it said was a CCTV image from the entrance showing a young man dressed in black, with a moustache, carrying a backpack and what appeared to be an assault rifle.
As night fell, dozens of ambulances waited in convoy near the site, their blue lights flashing.
One of Turkey's leading defense companies and a major arms producer, TAI employs 15,500 people and has a vast production site covering an area of five million square meters, its website says.
The attack was condemned across Turkey and beyond, with Putin offering Erdogan his “condolences related to the terrorist attack” at the start of their meeting.
Statements of condemnation and condolences to the victims' families also poured in from Brussels, Berlin, Paris, Tehran, Washington and NATO leaders.
– Prospects for dialogue with the PKK –
The attack came as Turkey's political establishment appeared to be leaning toward a political, negotiated solution to the decades-long conflict with Kurdish militants.
The moment was not lost on the main pro-Kurdish party, Dem, the third largest force in Parliament, which said it was “remarkable that the attack took place at the very moment when Turkish society was talking about a solution and of the possibility of a dialogue”.
This came a day after the leader of the far-right MHP, which belongs to Erdogan's ruling coalition, invited imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan to address parliament to announce the dissolution of its movement.
The PKK has led an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984, killing tens of thousands. Öcalan has been held in solitary confinement on a prison island since 1999.
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