Türkiye attacks Iraq and Syria after attacking defense contractors near Ankara | Military News

Turkey says it hit targets linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, which it blames for the attack on the aerospace and defense company TUSAS.

The Turkish air force has struck Kurdish targets in Iraq and Syria, apparently in retaliation for an attack on a key state defense contractor that killed five people and injured more than 20.

On Thursday, the Defense Ministry said 47 targets had been “destroyed” in Wednesday's air offensive, without providing details of the locations hit. “All possible precautions” were taken to prevent harm to the civilian population.

Defense Minister Yasar Güler said Turkish forces attacked 29 targets in northern Iraq and 18 in northern Syria.

The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said on Thursday that Turkish airstrikes in northern and eastern Syria had killed 12 civilians, including two children, and injured 25 people.

Led by the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) and including Arab fighters, the SDF was a key partner in the US-led coalition against ISIL (ISIS). It controls a quarter of Syria, including oil fields and areas where around 900 US troops are stationed.

Turkey says the YPG is a terrorist organization closely linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). It blames them for an attack on Wednesday in which militants detonated explosives and opened fire on the TUSAS aerospace and defense company near the capital Ankara, which supplies civilian and military aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and other defense industries – and space systems are developed and manufactured.

The Turkish Defense Ministry said: “59 militants…were neutralized in the attacks, a term usually referred to as 'killed'.”

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya wrote on

Güler also pointed the finger at the PKK. “We will pursue them until the last terrorist is eliminated,” he said on Wednesday.

At a memorial ceremony at a defense industry trade fair in Istanbul on Thursday, Güler said: “No member of the treacherous terrorist organization will be able to escape the grasp of Turkish soldiers.”

There was no immediate statement from the PKK. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

As the state news agency Anadolu reported, security measures were tightened at the TUSAS headquarters on Thursday. Emergency services searched vehicles and checked the identities of people.

Funerals were held Thursday for some of the victims of the attack.

Istanbul's two main airports have increased security, the DHA news agency and the private NTV broadcaster reported.

Sabiha Gokcen Airport, located on the city's Asian side, issued a statement urging passengers to arrive “at least three hours” early to avoid delays due to increased security.

The attack on TUSAS came a day after Devlet Bahceli – the leader of Turkey's far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), which is allied with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) – raised the possibility that it could be the imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan who will be released on parole if he renounces violence and dissolves his organization.

Erdogan said in a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of a meeting of BRICS developing countries in Russia that he condemned the “heinous terrorist attack.”

The Iraqi embassy in Ankara released a statement condemning the attack.

It said it “affirms Iraq's firm position in rejecting terrorism and extremism in all its forms and manifestations and expresses the solidarity of the Iraqi 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 carries out airstrikes against the PKK in Iraq and against a PKK-affiliated Kurdish group in Syria.

The UAVs manufactured by TUSAS have been instrumental in Turkey gaining the upper hand in the fight against Kurdish fighters.

Öcalan's group is fighting for autonomy in southeastern Turkey in a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people since the 1980s. It is viewed as 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 took place at a time when the possibility of dialogue to end the conflict had arisen.

Reporting from Ankara, Al Jazeera's Sinem Koseoglu said: “Many are now wondering whether there is still room for peace.”