Turkish war planes carried out air strikes on Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) camps Monday in response to a car bombing in the capital of Ankara that killed approximately 37 people.
The Turkish military released a statement Monday confirming 18 strikes using 11 aircraft targeted PKK ammunition depots, shelters and various other targets that had been recently discovered.
Turkish security officials claimed that the Sunday bombing was carried out by a female PKK member using a car bomb, though the group has not claimed responsibility as of yet. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to crack down on terrorists in response, while security personnel have arrested four people believed to have ties to the vehicle utilized in the attack.
“Our people should not worry, the struggle against terrorism will for certain end in success and terrorism will be brought to its knees,” said Erdogan.
Mandatory curfews have been imposed in several regions of southeast Turkey, the area where a substantial portion of Turkey’s Kurdish minority lives.
The PKK is a Kurdish separatist group that has been fighting an insurgency war with the Turkish government since 1984. The conflict is believed to have killed as many as 45,000 people. The group follows a Marxist-Leninist ideology and is considered anti-U.S. It has been listed as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department since 1997. The group has targeted U.S. interests since its inception, with the latest incident occurring in 2013 when it tried to attack the U.S. embassy in Ankara via a suicide bomber.
The Ankara attack is the second major bombing in the Turkish capital this year. An attack in February targeted a military facility, leaving at least 28 dead. Erdogan initially blamed the Syrian Kurdish PYD group for the attack, but the Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK) claimed responsibility shortly after the attack. TAK is believed to be a splinter group of the PKK created in 2004.
Fighting between the PKK and Turkey has been ongoing since a ceasefire concluded last year. In addition to the PKK, Turkey has also engaged in strikes against other Kurdish groups, most notably the People’s Protection Units (YPG) operating against the Islamic State in northern Syria. The conflict has created tension with the U.S., which has armed and supported several Kurdish YPG units.
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