Turkish jets attack northern Syria, Iraq
ISTANBUL — Turkish fighter jets carried out dozens of airstrikes in northern Syria and Iraq on Sunday, in what Turkish officials called an anti-terrorism campaign to root out militants they accused of orchestrating a deadly bomb attack last week in Istanbul.
“The scoundrels are being held accountable for the treacherous attacks!” the Turkish Defense Ministry wrote on Twitter early Sunday, in a post with a photo of a warplane taking off. The strikes targeted shelters, tunnels, ammunition dumps and training camps, the ministry said.
More than two dozen people were reportedly killed, but different groups gave different numbers.
The Kurdish-led militia that administers northeastern Syria said 14 civilians and one fighter had been killed. The group, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, vowed to strike back against Turkey.
The new violence was a sharp uptick in tensions between two forces that have long hated each other and that both have close relationships with the United States.
After a bombing last week that killed six people and injured dozens on a busy pedestrian avenue in Istanbul, Turkish authorities released photos of a woman they said had planted the bomb and accused her of working for the PKK. Dozens of other suspects have been arrested.
In a statement Sunday, the Turkish Defense Ministry said its warplanes had hit 89 targets in northern Iraq and Syria, all military infrastructure connected to the PKK.