Turkey launched air strikes in Syria and Iraq overnight targeting Kurdish militants in attacks that risk escalating tensions in the volatile region.
Turkish fighter jets pounded bases and other sites belonging to the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK) and its Syrian affiliate, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), across Turkey’s borders, the defence ministry said. At least 11 civilians were killed in Syria, according to a spokesman for a Kurdish militia, while a war-monitoring group put the death toll at 65 people.
The operation came a week after Turkey blamed the PKK for a bomb attack in Istanbul that killed six people, and the ministry’s statement cited Ankara’s right to self-defence in carrying out the assault.