Turkey strikes Kurdish targets

TURKEY launched air strikes over northern Syria and Iraq, the Turkish Defence Ministry said yesterday, targeting Kurdish groups it holds responsible for an Istanbul bomb attack.

Warplanes attacked bases of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, and the Syrian People’s Protection Units, or YPG, the ministry said in a statement, which was accompanied by images of F-16 jets taking off and footage of a strike from an aerial drone.

There was no immediate comment from either group. The ministry cited Turkey’s right to self-defence under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter in launching an operation it called Clawsword late on Saturday night.