Turkey says it hit targets linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which it blames for the attack on aerospace and defence company TUSAS.
Turkey’s Air Force has struck Kurdish targets in Iraq and Syria in apparent retaliation for an attack on a key state-run defence company that killed five people and wounded more than 20.
The Ministry of National Defence said 32 targets were “destroyed” in the aerial offensive on Wednesday, without providing details on the locations that were hit. It said “all kinds of precautions” were taken to prevent harm to civilians.
The strikes came hours after suspected Kurdish fighters set off explosives and opened fire at the aerospace and defence company TUSAS, which designs, manufactures and assembles civilian and military aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and other defence industry and space systems.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) was believed to be behind the attack. Defence Minister Yasar Guler also pointed his finger at the PKK.
“We give these PKK scoundrels the punishment they deserve every time. But they never come to their senses,” Guler said. “We will pursue them until the last terrorist is eliminated.”
There was no immediate statement from the PKK.
The assault came a day after Devlet Bahceli – the leader of Turkey’s far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) allied with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) – raised the possibility that the PKK’s imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan could be granted parole if he renounces violence and disbands his organisation.
Erdogan said during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of a meeting of the BRICS developing economies in Russia that he condemned the “heinous terrorist attack”.
The Iraqi embassy in Ankara issued a statement condemning the attack on TUSAS.
It said it “affirms Iraq’s firm position in rejecting terrorism and extremism in all its forms and manifestations, and expresses the solidarity of Iraq’s government and people, with the government and people of the Republic of Turkey”. Earlier this year, Iraq announced a ban on the PKK.
Turkey regularly conducts air strikes against the PKK in Iraq and against a Kurdish group in Syria affiliated with the PKK.
The UAVs produced by TUSAS have been instrumental in Turkey gaining the upper hand in its fight against Kurdish fighters.
Ocalan’s group has been fighting for autonomy in southeastern Turkey in a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people since the 1980s. It is considered a terrorist group by Turkey and its Western allies.
The country’s main pro-Kurdish DEM party, which also condemned the TUSAS attack, noted that it had occurred at a time when the possibility of a dialogue to end the conflict had emerged.
Reporting from Ankara, Al Jazeera’s Sinem Koseoglu said “many now question whether there is still room for peace.”