Turkey says its jets pounded PKK positions, killing 45
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Turkish fighter jets pounded several Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) positions in northern Iraq on Monday, killing 45 militants, Turkey’s official Anadolu news agency reported.
"Nine F-16 and two F-4 jets carried out the raids on PKK positions in Qandil and Gara on March 14," the agency reported on Tuesday, quoting a military source as saying on Tuesday.
Gun positions, caves and shelters have reportedly been destroyed, it quoted the source as saying.
The airstrikes follow a car bombing in Turkey's capital Ankara on Sunday that killed at least 37 people, and which the government blamed on the PKK.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said there are "almost definite findings" that of PKK involvement.
Turkish security forces claimed that one of the suspected attackers who detonated the car bomb was a female member of the PKK.
On Monday Turkish warplanes also bombed 18 PKK-related targets in the Kurdistan Region, mere hours after the Ankara attack, while police carried out raids in Turkey’s southeastern city of Adana, arresting 38 suspected PKK members.
The Turkish government and the PKK renewed a decades old fight last summer, shattering a fragile peace agreement that was still in the making.
The PKK has been fighting for greater rights for Turkey’s 15 million Kurds. Some 30,000 people have been killed in the fighting.
"Nine F-16 and two F-4 jets carried out the raids on PKK positions in Qandil and Gara on March 14," the agency reported on Tuesday, quoting a military source as saying on Tuesday.
Gun positions, caves and shelters have reportedly been destroyed, it quoted the source as saying.
The airstrikes follow a car bombing in Turkey's capital Ankara on Sunday that killed at least 37 people, and which the government blamed on the PKK.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said there are "almost definite findings" that of PKK involvement.
Turkish security forces claimed that one of the suspected attackers who detonated the car bomb was a female member of the PKK.
On Monday Turkish warplanes also bombed 18 PKK-related targets in the Kurdistan Region, mere hours after the Ankara attack, while police carried out raids in Turkey’s southeastern city of Adana, arresting 38 suspected PKK members.
The Turkish government and the PKK renewed a decades old fight last summer, shattering a fragile peace agreement that was still in the making.
The PKK has been fighting for greater rights for Turkey’s 15 million Kurds. Some 30,000 people have been killed in the fighting.