Turkish warplanes strike Iraq after Ankara bombing

Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish militant camps in northern Iraq yesterday, a day after 37 people were killed in a car bombing in Ankara that security officials said involved two fighters from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

Sunday’s attack near the justice and interior ministries was the second such strike at the administrative heart of the Turkish capital in under a month.

No one has claimed responsibility for the latest attack. However, security officials said a female member of the outlawed PKK, which has fought for three decades for Kurdish autonomy in Turkey’s southeast, was one of the suspected perpetrators. A police source said her severed hand had been found 300m (900ft) from the blast site.

Evidence had been obtained that suggested she was born in 1992, was from the eastern city of Kars near the Armenian border and had joined the militant group in 2013, they said. The second suspect was a male Turkish citizen also with PKK links, a security official said.

Violence has increased in Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeast since a 2-1/2 year ceasefire with the PKK collapsed in July. The militants have so far largely focused their strikes on security forces in southeastern towns, many of which have been under curfew.

But attacks in Ankara and Istanbul over the past year, and the activity of Islamic State, also known as Isis, as well as Kurdish fighters, have raised concerns among Nato allies who see Turkey's stability as vital to containing violence in neighbouring Syria and Iraq.

President Tayyip Erdogan is also eager to dispel any notion he is struggling to maintain security. "With the power of our state and wisdom of our people, we will dig up the roots of this terror network which targets our unity and peace," foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Twitter.

The Turkish military said 11 warplanes carried out air strikes on 18 targets in northern Iraq early yesterday, including ammunition depots and shelters. The PKK has its bases in the mountains of northern Iraq, controlling operations across the frontier in Turkey.

A round-the-clock curfew was declared in three southeastern towns in order to conduct operations against Kurdish militants, local officials said. Many local people fled the towns in anticipation of the operations

Authorities detained 15 people in Istanbul in operations against the PKK and 50 more elsewhere in the country, CNN Turk reported. Victims of Sunday’s attack included the father of Umut Bulut, a footballer who plays for Turkey and Galatasaray, the Istanbul club said on its website.

War in Syria

Turkey’s government sees the unrest in its southeast as closely tied to the war in Syria, where a Kurdish militia has seized territory along the Turkish border as it battles Islamic State militants and rebels fighting president Bashar al-Assad.

Ankara fears those gains are stoking Kurdish separatist ambitions at home and says Syrian Kurdish fighters share deep ideological and operational ties with the PKK. They also complicate relations with the United States which, while deeming the PKK to be a terrorist group, sees the Syrian Kurds as an important ally in battling Islamic State. Such is the complexity and sensitivity of alliances in the region.

The explosives were the same kind as those used in a February 17th attack that killed 29 people, mostly soldiers, and the bomb had been packed with pellets and nails to cause maximum damage, a security official said.

The attack is the third in five months in Ankara. More than 100 people were killed in a double suicide bombing in the city in October that has been blamed on Islamic State.

Turkey is part of the US-led coalition fighting Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. The militant group has been blamed for at least four bomb attacks on Turkey since last June, including the killing of 10 German tourists in Istanbul in January. Local jihadist groups and leftist radicals have also staged attacks.

‘Who is responsible?’

The main opposition CHP party criticised interior minister Efkan Ala, suggesting he had not done enough to ensure security. “If a minister is not doing his duty, that person should leave their post,” CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu said. “Hundreds of our people have lost their lives because of terror. Who is responsible for this?”

The head of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), Selahattin Demirtas condemned the bombing as a “terrorist attack that directly targets civilians” and called on the government to give an account of what happened. Mr Erdogan has previously accused the HDP of being an extension of the outlawed PKK.

There was little immediate reaction in financial markets, with the Turkish lira only slightly weaker against the dollar. But analysts said the deteriorating security situation was a concern for a country heavily dependent on tourism.

In its armed campaign, the PKK has historically struck directly at the security forces and says it does not target civilians. A direct claim of responsibility for Sunday’s bombing would indicate a major tactical shift.

The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK) claimed responsibility for the February bombing. TAK says it has split from the PKK, although experts who study Kurdish militants say the two are affiliated. – (Reuters)