Turkish jets late on Sunday launched air strikes inside Iraqi Kurdistan, after a blast earlier the same day injured two police officers near the parliament building in 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.
Photo: AFP
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 Turkish Ministry of the Interior said that two attackers had arrived in a commercial vehicle at about 9:30am 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,” Turkish Minister of the Interior 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 prosecutors’ 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.
In a statement to the Firat News Agency (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.
The Turkish Ministry of National Defense said there had been an “air operation” in northern Iraq to “neutralise the PKK.”
“A total of 20 targets were destroyed, consisting of caves, bunkers, shelters and depots used by the separatist terrorist organization,” the ministry said, adding that many militants were “neutralized,” a term used to mean killed.
The operations were conducted in the Metina, Hakurk, Qandil and Gara regions of northern Iraq at 9pm, and every measure was taken to avoid harm to civilians and the environment, it said.
In his opening remarks, Erdogan also slammed the EU for stalling his country’s membership bid, saying 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.
This session of Turkey’s parliament must also validate Sweden’s entry into the NATO alliance.
Hungary and Turkey in July lifted their vetoes against Sweden’s entry into the Atlantic alliance, but have been slow to ratify its membership.
Erdogan said in July that ratification by the Turkish parliament would not take place before this month, but it is expected to be approved during this parliamentary year.
For months, Erdogan has been putting pressure on Sweden to take action against desecrations of the Koran that have strained relations between the two countries.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson was quick to pledge in a statement after the attack that his country “once again confirms its commitment to long-term cooperation with Turkey in the fight against terrorism.”
Numerous foreign leaders also voiced support for Turkey, with messages of support coming from Germany, the UK and the US embassy in Ankara.
Additional reporting by Reuters
Seven people sustained mostly minor injuries in an airplane fire in South Korea, authorities said yesterday, with local media suggesting the blaze might have been caused by a portable battery stored in the overhead bin. The Air Busan plane, an Airbus A321, was set to fly to Hong Kong from Gimhae International Airport in southeastern Busan, but caught fire in the rear section on Tuesday night, the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said. A total of 169 passengers and seven flight attendants and staff were evacuated down inflatable slides, it said. Authorities initially reported three injuries, but revised the number
A colossal explosion in the sky, unleashing energy hundreds of times greater than the Hiroshima bomb. A blinding flash nearly as bright as the sun. Shockwaves powerful enough to flatten everything for miles. It might sound apocalyptic, but a newly detected asteroid nearly the size of a football field now has a greater than 1 percent chance of colliding with Earth in about eight years. Such an impact has the potential for city-level devastation, depending on where it strikes. Scientists are not panicking yet, but they are watching closely. “At this point, it’s: ‘Let’s pay a lot of attention, let’s
‘BALD-FACED LIE’: The woman is accused of administering non-prescribed drugs to the one-year-old and filmed the toddler’s distress to solicit donations online A social media influencer accused of filming the torture of her baby to gain money allegedly manufactured symptoms causing the toddler to have brain surgery, a magistrate has heard. The 34-year-old Queensland woman is charged with torturing an infant and posting videos of the little girl online to build a social media following and solicit donations. A decision on her bail application in a Brisbane court was yesterday postponed after the magistrate opted to take more time before making a decision in an effort “not to be overwhelmed” by the nature of allegations “so offensive to right-thinking people.” The Sunshine Coast woman —
CHEER ON: Students were greeted by citizens who honked their car horns or offered them food and drinks, while taxi drivers said they would give marchers a lift home Hundreds of students protesting graft they blame for 15 deaths in a building collapse on Friday marched through Serbia to the northern city of Novi Sad, where they plan to block three Danube River bridges this weekend. They received a hero’s welcome from fellow students and thousands of local residents in Novi Said after arriving on foot in their two-day, 80km journey from Belgrade. A small red carpet was placed on one of the bridges across the Danube that the students crossed as they entered the city. The bridge blockade planned for yesterday is to mark three months since a huge concrete construction
RSS