PKK claims attack on Turkish defense company near Ankara that killed five people | Military news

The Defense Ministry says it has hit 34 targets of the banned group in northern Iraq, while Turkey arrests 176 suspects for assault.

The outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has claimed responsibility for an attack on a Turkish state defense company near the capital Ankara that killed five people and injured 22.

The “act of sacrifice” in Ankara “was carried out by a team from the PKK’s Immortals Battalion,” the group said on the Telegram messaging app on Friday.

Turkish Aerospace Industries (TUSAS) was attacked on Wednesday with fighters setting off explosives and opening fire with automatic rifles on the campus of the company that designs and produces civil and military aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and other defense industry and space systems.

On Friday, Turkey’s Ministry of National Defense said it carried out airstrikes in northern Iraq for the second night in a row, hitting 34 PKK targets in Hakurk, Gara, Qandil and Sinjar and destroying shelters, warehouses and other facilities.

The overnight strikes followed a security meeting that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan chaired with key ministers and heads of the armed forces and intelligence in Istanbul.

The Turkish government previously said it had evidence that the PKK, which is listed as a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, was behind the attack.

Turkish forces previously attacked 29 targets in northern Iraq and 18 in northern Syria following the attack on TUSAS, with Erdogan saying the perpetrators “infiltrated Turkey from Syria,” Turkish media reported on Friday.

Speaking to reporters during his flight back to Turkey from Kazan, Russia, where he was attending the BRICS summit, the president pledged to “eradicate terrorism at its source” in Syria, adding that his country would continue the fight against armed fighters would continue until the end.

Erdogan vowed there would be no pause in the fight against the PKK, saying the overnight bombing campaign had “made the terrorists pay a very high price,” according to state media.

On Friday, Reuters news agency quoted security sources as saying that Turkey’s National Intelligence Service (MIT) had hit a total of 120 PKK targets in Iraq and Syria since the Ankara attack.

Turkish drone strikes killed 27 civilians in northern and eastern Syria in a 24-hour military escalation following the deadly attack, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, said on Friday.

It said it had documented 45 drone attacks and four by fighter jets that targeted infrastructure including water and electricity networks and gas stations. The Turkish military rejects claims it is hitting civilian targets.

In addition, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on Friday that 176 suspected PKK members have been arrested during operations across Turkey.

Turkey regularly carries out air strikes against the PKK in Iraq and against an affiliated Kurdish group in Syria. The PKK is fighting for autonomy in southeastern Turkey in a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people since the 1980s.