Turkey attacks Kurdish militant targets in Syria and Ireland

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey attacked suspected Kurdish militant targets in Syria and Iraq for a second day Thursday after an attack on the buildings of a key defense company that killed at least five people, the state news agency reported.

The National Intelligence Service targeted numerous “strategic locations” used by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party PKK, or by Syrian Kurdish militias linked to the militants, the Anadolu Agency reported. Targets included military, intelligence, energy and infrastructure facilities and ammunition depots, the report said. A security official said armed drones were used in Thursday’s attacks.

On Wednesday, the Turkish air force carried out airstrikes on similar targets in northern Syria and northern Iraq, hours after government officials blamed the PKK for the deadly attack on the headquarters of the aerospace and defense company TUSAS. More than thirty targets were destroyed in the air offensive, the Ministry of Defense said.

The attackers – a man and a woman – arrived at the TUSAS building on the outskirts of Ankara in a taxi they commandeered after killing the driver, reports said. Armed with assault rifles, they detonated explosives and opened fire, killing four people at TUSAS, including a security personnel and a mechanical engineer.

Security teams were dispatched as soon as the attack began around 3:30 p.m., the interior minister said. The attack also killed the two attackers and injured more than twenty people.

There was no immediate statement from the PKK on the attack or the Turkish airstrikes.

TUSAS designs, manufactures and assembles civil and military aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles and other defense industry and space systems. Its defense systems are considered key to Turkey gaining the upper hand in its fight against Kurdish militants.

The attack came a day after the leader of Turkey’s far-right nationalist party, which is an ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, raised the possibility that the jailed PKK leader could be released on parole if he renounces violence and his organization dissolves.

Abdullah Ocalan’s group is fighting for autonomy in southeastern Turkey in a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people since the 1980s. It is considered a terrorist group by Turkey and its Western allies.