The Nepal Weekly 
October 3, 2023
Turkey’s military carried out airstrikes targeting Kurdish militants in northern Iraq on Sunday, just hours after the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) claimed responsibility for a deadly bombing in the capital in the latest attack of its nearly 40 year long insurgency.
Turkish Defense Ministry, issuing a statement said its warplanes destroyed 20 PKK targets including caves, bunkers, shelters and warehouses in the regions of Metina, Hakurk, Kandil, and Gara. “Many terrorists were neutralized by using the maximum amount of domestic and national ammunition,” reads the statement, which cited self-defense rights from Article 51 of the United Nations Charter to justify the attack.
The PKK, which is categorised as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States, and the European Union, earlier said it was behind the blast Sunday outside Turkey’s Interior Ministry building killing one person and injuring two, according to the pro-PKK Firat News Agency. The ministry said in a statement that two attackers murdered a civilian and stole his vehicle ahead of the opening of parliament in Ankara. Two police officers reportedly received non-life-threatening injuries.
One assailant blew himself up and the other was “neutralized,” the ministry claimed. Investigators found four different types of guns, three hand grenades, one rocket launcher, and C-4 explosives at the scene. The ministry confirmed at least one of the two attackers is a PKK member. The second attacker has not yet been identified, it added.
