The Turkish defence ministry said early on Sunday it carried out air strikes on outlawed Kurdish militant bases in northern Syria and northern Iraq, which it said were used to carry out attacks on Turkey.
The strikes dubbed ‘Operation Claw Sword’. targeted bases of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, which Turkey says is a wing of the PKK, the ministry added in a statement.
According to the latest reports, 31 people were killed on the ground, including 18 Kurdish rebels, 12 government soldiers and a civilian.
12 dead were reported in the Syrian border town of Kobani, both government soldiers and Kurdish soldiers, with dozens injured.
Turkey said on Tuesday it plans to pursue targets in northern Syria after it completes a cross-border operation against the PKK militants in Iraq, following a deadly bomb last weekend in Istanbul.
The government has blamed Kurdish militants for the blast on Istanbul’s Istiklal Avenue on Nov. 13 that killed six people and injured more than 80. No group has claimed responsibility for the blast on the busy pedestrian avenue, and the PKK and SDF have denied involvement.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said late Saturday that Turkish aircraft shelled two villages populated with internally displaced people in northern Syria.
Turkey has conducted three incursions so far into northern Syria against the YPG militia.
President Tayyip Erdogan has previously said Turkey could conduct another operation against the YPG.
‘It’s time for the reckoning’, Turkish defence minister Hulusi Akar said today, in a grim warning of more to come.
