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The Kurdistan Workers’ Party has been fighting Turkey for autonomy since 1984. The Turks and their NATO allies list the group as a terrorist organization.
Turkish artillery also shelled Islamic State and PKK positions from across the border, Ankara said.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan confirmed on Friday that Ankara had agreed to let the US use the Incirlik air base near the city of Adana in southern Turkey.
“In our phone call with Obama, we reiterated our determination in the struggle against the separatist organization [Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)] and the Islamic State,” Erdogan told reporters on Friday. “We took the first step last night.”
A new eruption of violence in Turkey was sparked by an IS suicide bombing in the southeastern Turkish city of Suruc on Monday that killed 32 people, most of whom were Kurdish nationals. The Kurds have accused the Turkish authorities of a laissez-faire approach towards Islamic State.
A series of terror acts targeting Turkish police, carried out by Kurdish activists this week, claimed the lives of two Turkish law enforcers near the mainly Kurdish city of Sanliurfa close to the Syrian border.
On Friday, suspected PKK militant threw a small bomb into a police station in Bismil, wounding seven police officers.
The Kurdish Peshmerga militia has been fighting IS for some time, protecting areas inhabited by Kurd nationals in so-called Kurdistan.
The rapid advance of Islamic State has prompted the Kurds to reinforce troops on the frontline in their fight against the extremists.
The Kurds are one of the largest ethnic groups in the world, but they don’t have their own state. Kurdistan encompasses parts of Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria. Of the four regions, Iraqi Kurdistan has made the most progress in defining its status politically and striving for independence.
The Turkish PM’s office announced their forces attacked several militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) targets and Islamic State positions. Kurdish fighters, who have been battling the jihadists for months, say the truce with Turkey is now meaningless.
The Turkish PM’s office has said their fighter jets bombed seven militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) targets in Northern Iraq, AFP reported.
Turkey also launched simultaneous ground attacks against the PKK and Islamic State in northern Syria, Reuters said, citing the PM’s office.
“Strikes were carried out on targets of the Daesh (Islamic State) terror group in Syria and the PKK terror group in northern Iraq,” Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu’s office said in a statement.
READ MORE: Turkey joins US-led coalition against ISIS, provides jets & air bases
The airstrikes targeted PKK warehouses, logistics points, living quarters and storage buildings, Turkish authorities said in a statement.
The overnight air assault was the first Turkish strike against Kurds in northern Iraq since a peace deal between Ankara and the PKK separatists was announced in 2013.
“At around 11:00 pm (2000 GMT) tonight, Turkish warplanes started bombing our positions near the border, accompanied by heavy artillery shelling,” PKK spokesman in Iraq, Bakhtiar Dogan, confirmed to AFP.
Among the bombarded locations was the stronghold of PKK’s military leadership at Mount Kandil.
The Kurdistan Workers Party announced in its website that after last night’s airstrikes and ground military attacks, the truce with Turkey has “no meaning anymore.”
On Friday, Ankara announced joining the anti-ISIS coalition by providing jets and airbases as part of an agreement with the US.
The move was due to the growing threat to Turkey’s security posed by the jihadists, the Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement.
Turkish Air forces carry out attacks on Kurdistan Worker Party stronghold in north of Iraq on Friday 24, 2015. Photo: AFP
By RUDAW
Erbil, Kurdistan Region — Turkish warplanes launched blistering attacks on Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) camps in the Kurdistan region of Iraq late Friday.
The attacks reportedly hit Rat, Metina, Gare, Haftanin and Havashin in Qandil Mountains located in Kurdistan region.
Casualties have yet to be assessed, but according to witnesses from the region, four PKK militants were killed by the airstrikes.
This is the first strike since the 2013 fragile peace deal between Turkish authorities and PKK forces.
The warplanes targeted bunkers, trenches and storage facilities and other logistical points at PKK strongholds in the Qandil Mountains, according to a statement released by the Turkish Prime Minister’s office.
The attack comes after the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan promised to take decisive action against both Islamic State militants in Syria and Kurdish militants of PKK in the region.
Tensions have flared in the region following the Monday terrorist attack on the ethnically Kurdish town of Suruc in Turkey that killed 32 people and injured more than 100.
Kurdish groups accused the Turkish government of plotting the blast.
In return PKK fighters claimed the responsibility for the death of two Turkish police officers on Wednesday saying that those officers were connected to ISIS and helped the suicide bomber to carry out the attack on Suruc. PKK also claimed responsibility for another attack on a Turkish army base that reportedly injured eight Turkish soldiers.
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