Turkey strikes Syria, Iraq a week after Istanbul bombing

ISTANBUL — Turkey launched deadly airstrikes over northern regions of Syria and Iraq, the Turkish Defense Ministry said Sunday, targeting Kurdish groups that Ankara holds responsible for last week's bomb attack in Istanbul.

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.

The ministry cited Turkey's right to self defense under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter in launching an operation it called Claw-Sword late Saturday. It said it was targeting areas “used as a base by terrorists in their attacks on our country.”

Syrian Kurdish officials have alleged civilian deaths from the air attacks.

The airstrikes came after a bomb rocked a bustling avenue in the heart of Istanbul on Nov. 13, killing six people and wounding over 80 others. Turkish authorities blamed the attack on the PKK and its Syrian affiliate the YPG. The Kurdish militant groups have, however, denied involvement.

Ankara and Washington both consider the PKK a terror group, but disagree on the status of the YPG. Under the banner of the Syrian Democratic Forces, the YPG has been allied with the U.S. in the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria.

The PKK has fought an armed insurgency in Turkey since 1984. The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people since then.

Following the strikes, the Defense Ministry posted a photo of an F-16 fighter plane with the phrase, “Payback time! The scoundrels are being held to account for their treacherous attacks.” The DHA news agency reported that F-16s took off from airfields in Malatya and Diyarbakir in southern Turkey while drones were launched from Batman.

The ministry claimed that a total of 89 targets were destroyed and a “large number" of what it designated "terrorists” were killed in strikes that ranged from Tall Rifat in northwest Syria to the Qandil mountains in Iraq's northeast.

Defense Minister Hulusi Akar oversaw the airstrikes from an operations center and congratulated pilots and ground staff.