Turkey targets Kurdish camps in retaliation for deadly Ankara suicide blast

Turkish warplanes have bombed Kurdish militant camps in northern Iraq - as an explosion hit a second military convoy in south-east Turkey. Six people were said to have been killed in Thursday’s attack near Diyarbakir - a day after a car bomb was detonated near a military headquarters in the Turkish capital Ankara, killing 28 people and injuring dozens of others. Turkey blamed both attacks on Kurdish militants.

The attack was carried out by the PKK together with a person who sneaked into Turkey from Syria.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the suicide bombing was carried out by a Syrian national, in conjunction with Turkey’s Kurdish rebels. The Syrian man had registered as a refugee in the country in July 2014. He also said 60 to 70 militants, including senior leaders, had been killed in the overnight air raids targeting rebel positions of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK. In an apparent appeal to the United States, Mr Davutoglu called on allies to withdraw their support for Kurdish militias fighting in Syria. Turkey regards the Syrian Democratic Union Party, and its military wing, the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) as terrorists because of their affiliation to Turkey’s outlawed Kurdish rebel group.

Turkey