Ankara confirms that it targeted groups responsible for the "Istanbul attack"

Turkey bombs sites in Syria and Iraq, and the Syrian army is killed

  • A picture of an F-16 fighter, published by the Turkish Ministry of Defense, with the words "Time to respond" written on it.

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  • The Turkish Minister of Defense follows the military operation at the Air Force Command Center in Ankara.

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Yesterday, the Turkish Ministry of Defense announced the launch of air strikes in northern Syria and Iraq, targeting Kurdish groups that Ankara considers responsible for the attack in Istanbul last week, while the Syrian army announced the deaths in its ranks as a result of the Turkish strikes.

The Turkish Ministry of Defense said in a statement that its warplanes attacked bases belonging to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party and the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units, and attached pictures of F-16 fighters and drones carrying out strikes, and confirmed that 89 targets, including shelters and warehouses. Ammunition, destroyed in air strikes on Kurdish militia bases in northern Iraq and northern Syria.

She added that the strikes targeted Qandil, Asus, and Hakurk in Iraq, and Kobani, Tal Refaat, Al-Jazeera, and Derik in northern Syria, explaining that "the so-called leaders of the terrorist organization were among those who were neutralized."

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," which it said targeted areas "used by terrorists as a base to launch attacks on Turkey."

Turkey stated that it seeks to prevent attacks against it, secure its southern borders, and destroy terrorism at its source.

The air strikes came after a bomb exploded in a crowded street in the heart of Istanbul on November 13, killing six people and injuring more than 80 others. The Turkish authorities accused the “PKK and the Kurdish People’s Protection Units” of being behind the attack, but the two groups denied any role. them in the explosion.

After the airstrikes, the Turkish Ministry of Defense published a picture of an F-16 fighter jet with the words, “Time to respond!

The bastards will be held accountable for their treacherous attacks.”

According to the private Turkish news agency "Dogan" (DHA), "F-16" aircraft took off from airstrips in the cities of Malatya and Diyarbakir, southern Turkey, while drones took off from the city of Batman.

Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar supervised the air strikes from an operations center, congratulated the pilots and soldiers working on the ground, and said in a video clip published by the Turkish Ministry of Defense: “Our goal is to ensure the security of 85 million citizens, secure our borders, and respond to any treacherous attack on our country.”

The airstrikes targeted Kobani (Ayn al-Arab), a strategic Syrian town with a Kurdish majority located near the Turkish border. The spokesman for the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), Farhad Shami, stated in a tweet on Twitter that two villages crowded with displaced people were subjected to Turkish bombardment. The strikes caused deaths and injuries.

And the Syrian Ministry of Defense announced the deaths of the Syrian army as a result of the Turkish strikes that targeted at dawn the border areas in the north and northeast of the country, and a Syrian military source said that a number of soldiers were killed as a result of the Turkish attacks on the Syrian lands in the northern countryside of Aleppo and the countryside of Hasakah.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said, in a statement, that Turkish warplanes bombed several areas it controls in northern Syria, and that it will respond "at the appropriate time and place." In the same context, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights stated that at least 31 people were killed due to Turkish air strikes on Kurdish sites in northeastern Syria.

In Iraq, the Turkish strikes did not result in civilian deaths, according to an official in Iraqi Kurdistan, explaining that the bombing targeted at least eight areas where PKK sites are located in Sinjar and the Qandil Mountains, where the largest PKK bases are located, in addition to Rawanduz and Usos. And Soran and Rania and Kaldz and Bradost.

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