Turkish air force targets Kurd rebels in Iraq strikes

Turkey’s air force hit Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq, a day after a suicide car bombing in the capital Ankara killed 37 people and heightened tensions with the militants.

Nine F-16s and two F-4 jets raided 18 positions of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, in northern Iraq, including the Qandil mountains where the group’s leadership is based, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported. Ammunition depots, bunkers, and shelters were among the targets hit.

Police, meanwhile, carried out raids in the southern city of Adana, detaining 38 suspected PKK rebels, the agency reported. Fifteen suspected Kurdish militants were also detained in Istanbul, Anadolu said.

Health minister Mehmet Muezzinoglu said three more people died overnight from wounds suffered in Sunday night’s suicide attack, which targeted buses and people waiting at bus stops in the heart of Ankara.

Around 125 people were wounded in the blast, with 71 people still in hospital. Of those, 15 were in serious condition.

Authorities believe the attack was carried out by two bombers and was the work of Kurdish militants, a senior government official said.

It was the second deadly attack blamed on Kurdish militants in the capital in the past month and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to bring “terrorism to its knees”.

On February 17, a suicide car bombing in the capital targeted buses carrying military personnel, killing 29 people.

A Kurdish militant group, which is an offshoot of the PKK, claimed responsibility.

About 210 people have died in five suicide bombings in Turkey since July that were blamed either on the Kurdish rebels or IS.