PKK claims attack on Turkish defense contractor near Ankara, killing five | Military News

According to the Defense Ministry, 34 targets of the banned group were hit in northern Iraq, while Turkey arrested 176 suspects on assault charges.

The outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has claimed responsibility for an attack on a Turkish state-owned defense contractor near the capital Ankara that left five people dead and 22 injured.

The “act of sacrifice” in Ankara was carried out “by a team from the PKK’s Immortal Battalion,” the group said on the messaging app Telegram on Friday.

Turkey's Aerospace Industries (TUSAS) came under attack on Wednesday when militants detonated explosive devices and used automatic rifles on the campus of the company, which designs and manufactures civil and military aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and other defense industrial and space systems opened fire.

On Friday, the Turkish Defense Ministry said it carried out airstrikes in northern Iraq for the second straight night, hitting 34 PKK targets in Hakurk, Gara, Qandil and Sinjar and destroying shelters, warehouses and other facilities.

The overnight strikes followed a security meeting led by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with key ministers and heads of the armed forces and intelligence services in Istanbul.

The Turkish government had previously said it had evidence that the PKK, designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, was behind the attack.

Turkish forces have previously attacked 29 targets in northern Iraq and 18 in northern Syria following the attack on TUSAS. Erdogan said the perpetrators “entered Turkey from Syria,” Turkish media reported Friday.

Speaking to reporters during his return flight to Turkey from Russia's Kazan, where he attended the BRICS summit, the president vowed to “eliminate terrorism at its source” in Syria, adding that his country would continue the fight against armed militants will continue until the end.

Erdogan vowed that the fight against the PKK would not let up, saying the overnight bombings had “made the terrorists pay a very heavy price,” according to state media.

On Friday, Reuters news agency quoted security sources as saying that Turkey's National Intelligence Service (MIT) had struck a total of 120 PKK targets in Iraq and Syria since the attack near Ankara.

Turkish drone strikes killed 27 civilians in northern and eastern Syria in a 24-hour military escalation following the deadly attack, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, said on Friday.

It said 45 drone strikes and four strikes by warplanes had been documented, targeting infrastructure including water and electricity networks and gas stations. The Turkish army rejects claims that it hit civilian targets.

Separately, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on Friday that 176 suspected PKK members had been arrested in operations across Türkiye.

Turkey regularly carries out airstrikes against the PKK in Iraq and an affiliated Kurdish group in Syria. The PKK is fighting for autonomy in southeastern Turkey in a conflict that has cost tens of thousands of lives since the 1980s.