Turkish warplanes strike 17 PKK targets in southeast of the country

Turkey’s largest city Istanbul was shaken by twin attacks on the US consulate and a police station that killed one senior officer, while five police were killed in the southeastern Sirnak province in an escalating cycle of violence.

In further violence yesterday, Kurdish rebels in the southeastern province of Sirnak fired at a helicopter carrying conscripts who either had finished their term of duty or were taking leave, killing one of them and injuring another, the military said. A masked Turkish police officer secures a road leading to the U.S. Consulate building in Istanbul Monday. Police said the assailants exploded a vehicle bomb near the station. Three of the 10 wounded were identified as police.

Tensions are high in Turkey after it launched an offensive against Islamic State (IS) jihadists and Kurdish militants following a series of attacks inside Turkey. It has also rounded up hundreds of suspected militants at home.

In a statement on its website, the group described Asik as a “revolutionary” fighting American oppression and vowed to maintain its struggle until Turkey is “cleared” of all U.S. bases on its territory.

In 2013, DHKP-C members Hasan Biber and Muharrem Karatas allegedly attacked the Turkish Interior Ministry and Justice and Development (AK) Party’s headquarters in Ankara.

The AK Party, co-founded by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has accused the pro-Kurdish HDP party, which won an unprecedented 13 percent of the national vote in June, of backing the militants, a charge the group denies.

Approximately 40,000 individuals have been killed since 1984, when the armed group launched its very first attack.

Two Turkish F-16s then Tuesday afternoon destroyed PKK targets in Sirnak province, the army said. The PKK accuses Turkey of recently joining the fight against the Islamic State to counter Kurdish control along the border with Syria and exclude Kurds from gaining a voice in Turkey’s democracy.

The European Union and United States, which like Turkey list the PKK as a terror group, have backed Ankara’s right to strike against the militants but also indicated a degree of concern about the magnitude of the campaign.

Details of the attack were not available, but the governorship said one woman was arrested and the other was being sought.

Parallel to the renewed attacks against the PKK has been a more aggressive approach by Turkey toward the Islamic State.

And while Tuesday’s military activity was kept within Turkey’s borders, Turkish warplanes have also been bombing PKK targets in Syria, thereby adding a new dimension to a conflict that is already being waged on many fronts.

No U.S. personnel were injured in the shooting incident outside the heavily fortified mission, but the consulate said that it was closing until further notice, according to Turkish media accounts. They believe it’s a screen, a cover, if you like, for increasing attacks on Kurdish militant groups in Iraq and in Turkey. In recent days Turkey’s top religious body, which is overseen by the state, said it would begin distributing anti-Islamic State sermons to mosques around the country.