Turkey warplanes bomb Kurdish bases in Iraq after Ankara blast: Army

Turkish warplanes have targeted Kurdish militant bases in northern Iraq a day after a deadly bomb attack in the capital killed 37 people, the army says.

The fighter jets hit arms depots and shelters of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the mountainous Kandil and Gara regions in northern Iraq on Monday, the army said, quoted by the state-run Anatolia news agency.

The targets were hit "with precision," it added.

Inside Turkey, authorities also declare curfew in mainly Kurdish southeastern town of Sirnak from Monday night, according to the governor's office.

A bomb-laden car exploded in the centrally located Kizilay neighborhood of Ankara on Sunday. The death toll in the car bomb attack has risen to 37 people, Health Minister Mehmet Muezzinoglu said on Monday, adding that 71 people were still being treated in hospital. Of those in hospital, 15 were in serious condition, he told reporters.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility; however, two Turkish security officials told Reuters the initial findings suggest that the bombing was carried out by the Kurdish militant group Kurdistan Workers’ Party, also known as the PKK, or an affiliated group.

The explosion occurred less than a month after a car bomb attack in central Ankara killed 29 people. Kurdish militants claimed responsibility for that attack.

Ankara has been engaged in a large-scale campaign against the PKK in its southern border region in the past few months. The Turkish military has also been conducting offensives against the positions of the group in northern Iraq. 

Turkey’s aerial campaign inside the Iraqi territory has repeatedly drawn fire from Baghdad, which has denounced Ankara for violating the country’s sovereignty.

The Turkish military operations began in the wake of a deadly July 2015 bombing in the southern Turkish town of Suruc. More than 30 people died in the attack, which the Turkish government blamed on the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group.

After the bombing, the PKK militants, who accuse the government in Ankara of supporting Daesh, engaged in a series of attacks against Turkish police and security forces, prompting the Turkish military operations.

On Sunday, the Turkish military said at least 11 members of the PKK were killed during a counter-terrorism operation in the troubled southeastern part of the country.

The Turkish General Staff announced in a statement on Sunday that the PKK militants were killed in an offensive in the province of Hakkari.

The Turkish military says over 1,000 PKK militants have been killed since operations against the militants started in the country’s troubled southeastern regions last July.

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