Turkey strikes 17 PKK targets in southeast: army

The Turkish military said it hit and neutralized 17 “separatists terrorist targets” in Hakkari province, which borders Iran and Iraq.

The attack comes as Turkey opens its southeastern Incirlik air base to US fighter jets to carry out bombing raids against Islamic State (IS) targets in Syria.

In further violence Tuesday, Kurdish rebels attacked an infantry brigade command post in nearby Sirnak province, seriously wounding a soldier who later died in a hospital.

In the Monday attacks, which are attributed to the PKK, nine individuals including five police officers, died in five different offensives in Istanbul and in the southeastern Sirnak province.

In Istanbul, a police officer was killed during a clash that took place after yet another vehicle bombing.

However, the attack was also claimed by a smaller leftist group, the People’s Defence Units (HSB), on its Twitter feed.

Anadolu named the captured assailant as 42-year-old Hatice Asik and said she is a member of the far-left Revolutionary People’s Liberation Army-Front, or DHKP-C.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to fight against PKK militants, in the face of mounting attacks on security forces blamed on the Kurdish rebels.

According to an AFP toll, 30 members of the security forces have been killed in PKK-linked violence since the current crisis began.

Turkey has been buffeted by elevated preventing between its army and the outlawed PKK, which has waged a three-decade struggle for higher Kurdish autonomy. PKK leader Cemil Bayik accused Turkey of trying to protect IS by attacking Kurdish fighters.

While Turkish politics has long had an opaque veneer that has resulted in a political spectrum rife with conspiracy theories, Ankara can’t allow itself to become embroiled in a new war with the PKK as the much greater menace of ISIL continues to gain strength just beyond the border in Syria.

“Neither the Turkish state nor PKK can win by military means”.

He added that the over two-week air campaign against the PKK had already inflicted “serious losses” on the group.

Hiwa said the PKK wants peace with Turkey but will continue to fight back in self-defense. This is not the first time the group targets a US diplomatic mission in Turkey, as it targeted the US Embassy in Ankara in 2013 and again the General Consulate in Istanbul in 2008.

The DHKP-C is classified as a terrorist organisation by the United States and the European Union.

“The EU condemns all acts of terrorism and expresses its solidarity with the Government and the people of Turkey”, Kocijancic said.