ANKARA â Turkey said it launched strikes on Kurdish militants in Iraq and Syria Wednesday after blaming them for an attack that killed five people at a defense firm near Ankara.
A further 22 people were wounded in the attack, which the government said was âvery likelyâ carried out by the outlawed Kurdistan Workersâ Party (PKK).
Hours later, âan air operation was carried out against terrorist targets in the north of Iraq and Syria,â the defense ministry said in a statement.
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âA total of 32 targets belonging to the terrorists were successfully destroyed,â it said, adding that operations were continuing.
Listed as a terror group by Turkey and its Western allies, the PKK has waged a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state. It has a number of rear bases in Kurdish regions of Iraq and Syria.
In the attack that sparked the strikes, a huge explosion rocked the headquarters of state-run Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) some 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of Ankara shortly after 3:30 pm.
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It sent clouds of smoke into the air as the sound of gunfire rang out, Turkish media reported, with the incident quickly denounced by Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya as a âterror attackâ.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was in Russia for talks with Vladimir Putin, called it a âheinousâ attack on Turkeyâs defense industry âtargeting the survival of our country,â in a message on X.
Attackers âneutralizedâ
Yerlikaya said three of the injured were in critical condition and that the two attackers, âa woman and a manâ, had been âneutralizedâ.
There was no immediate claim for the attack but Yerlikaya said: âThe way in which this action was carried out is very probably linked to the PKK.â
He said efforts to identify the perpetrators of the attack were ongoing.
Defense Minister Yasar Guler also pointed the finger at âPKK villainsâ.
âAs they always do, they tried to disturb our nationâs peace through a despicable and dishonorable attack⌠we will make them suffer for what they have done,â he said.
Turkeyâs vice president Cevdet Yilmaz said four of the victims were TAI employees while the fifth was a taxi driver. Media reports earlier said the assailants had killed him and taken his taxi to carry out the attack.
World leaders condemn attack
An unconfirmed report by private channel NTV said a âgroup of terroristsâ had burst into the building, one of whom âblew himself upâ while other outlets reported exchanges of fire for more than an hour.
Haberturk TV said there was a âhostage situationâ, with another media pundit saying âa number of hostagesâ had been rescued.
Turkish authorities imposed a blackout of live images from the scene.
Sabah newspaper published what it said was a CCTV image from the entrance showing a black-clad young man with a mustache carrying a rucksack and what appeared to be an assault rifle.
As night fell, dozens of ambulances could be seen waiting in convoy near the site, their blue lights flashing.
One of Turkeyâs top defense firms and a major arms producer, TAI employs 15,500 people and has a vast production site covering an area of five million square meters, its website says.
The attack drew condemnation from across Turkey and beyond, with Putin offering Erdogan his âcondolences in connection with the terror attackâ at the start of their meeting.
Statements of condemnation and condolences to the families of the victims also poured in from Brussels, Berlin, Paris, Tehran and Washington and NATO leadership.
PKK dialogue prospect
The attack came as Turkeyâs political establishment appeared to be leaning towards a political, negotiated solution to the decades-long conflict with the Kurdish militants.
The timing was not lost on the main pro-Kurdish party, Dem, the third largest force in parliament, which said it was ânoteworthy that the attack took place just as Turkish society was talking about a solution and the possibility of dialogueâ.
It took place a day after the head of the far-right MHP, which belongs to Erdoganâs ruling coalition, invited jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan to address parliament to announce his movementâs dissolution.
The PKK has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984, claiming tens of thousands of lives, with Ocalan held in solitary confinement on a prison island since 1999.