Turkey has launched airstrikes on northern regions of Syria and Iraq, the Turkish defense ministry confirmed on Sunday, targeting Kurdish groups Ankara holds responsible for last week’s bomb attack in Istanbul.
Warplanes attacked bases of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, and Syrian People’s Protection Units, or YPG, the ministry said in a statement, accompanied by pictures of F-16 jets taking off and footage of a attack from an aerial drone.
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The ministry claimed Turkey’s right to self-defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter in launching an operation dubbed the Claw-Sword. Ankara claims it has targeted areas “used as bases by terrorists in their attacks against our country”.
The airstrikes came from the November 13 Istanbul bombing in which six people were killed and 80 others were injured. Turkish authorities blamed the PKK and YPG for the attack. Kurdish militant groups have, however, denied any involvement.
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Ankara and Washington both consider the PKK a terrorist group, but disagree on the status of the YPG. Under the banner of the Syrian Democratic Forces, the YPG has allied with the United States in the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria. The shelling left 29 people dead, eleven of them civilians, according to the spokesman for the Syrian Democratic Forces, the Kurdish-led alliance.