ANKARA, TURKIYE (AP) – Turkish warplanes carried out new airstrikes against suspected Kurdish militant sites in northern Iraq on Tuesday, days after a suicide attack in the Turkish capital. Police, meanwhile, detained almost 1,000 people in raids across Turkiye.
A Defence Ministry statement said the air raids hit 16 targets, including caves, shelters and depots, used by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK in the neighbouring region.
It said the operation aimed to protect Turkiye’s borders and prevent terror attacks. It was Turkiye’s second cross-border aerial operation against PKK targets in northern Iraq since the attack in Ankara on Sunday.
Earlier, police conducted raids in several Turkish provinces, detaining close to 1,000 people, including dozens with alleged links to Kurdish militants. An opposition news anchor was also briefly detained.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said that 55 people suspected of being part of the PKK’s “intelligence structure” were detained in 16 provinces. At least 12 other suspected PKK members were rounded up in a separate operation in five provinces, Yerlikaya wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
The PKK claimed responsibility for the suicide attack, according to a news website close to the group.
The group has led a decades-long insurgency in Turkiye and is considered a terror organisation by the United States and the European Union.
