Turkey attacks PKK bases in northern Iraq
Turkish security forces cordon off an area after an explosion in Ankara
Ankara – In the hours following the bombing, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had already vowed that “terrorists” would never achieve their aims.
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), listed as a terror group by Turkey and its Western allies, claimed responsibility for the blast. It has waged a deadly insurgency against Ankara for four decades.
The district targeted in the bombing is home to several other ministries and the Turkish parliament, which reopened as planned in the afternoon with an address from Erdogan.
“The villains who threaten the peace and security of citizens have not achieved their objectives and will never achieve them,” Erdogan said.
The interior ministry said two attackers had arrived in a commercial vehicle around 9:30 am (0630 GMT) in front of “the entrance gate of the General Directorate of Security of our Ministry of the Interior, and carried out a bomb attack.”
“One of the terrorists blew himself up,” Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya told journalists outside the ministry. “The other was killed by a bullet to the head before he had a chance to blow himself up.”
Two police officers were lightly injured in the exchange of fire, but their lives were not in danger, he added.
The Ankara prosecutor’s office said it had opened an investigation and banned access to the area. Local media were asked to stop broadcasting images from the scene of the attack.
– North Iraq Strikes –
In a statement to the ANF news agency, which is close to the Kurdish movement, the PKK said that “a sacrificial action was carried out against the Turkish Interior Ministry”.
On Sunday evening, an official in Iraqi Kurdistan reported Turkish army planes bombing parts of the Bradost region and the village of Badran.
Turkey’s defence ministry acknowledged an “air operation” in northern Iraq to “neutralise the PKK”.
The ministry said that “20 targets used by terrorists” had been destroyed.
In his opening remarks, Erdogan also slammed the European Union for stalling his country’s membership bid, stating that Turkey “no longer expects anything from the European Union, which has kept us waiting at its door for 40 years”.
“We have kept all the promises we have made to the EU but they have kept almost none of theirs,” he said, adding that he would not “tolerate any new demands or conditions” for his country to join the bloc.