ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish warplanes carried out airstrikes on suspected Kurdish militant targets in northern Iraq on Sunday after a suicide attack on a government building in the Turkish capital, the Turkish Defense Ministry said.
About 20 Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) targets were “destroyed” in the latest air operation, including caves, shelters and depots, the ministry said, adding that a large number of PKK militants were “neutralized” by the attacks .
On Sunday, a suicide bomber detonated an explosive device near an entrance to the Interior Ministry, injuring two police officers. A second attacker was killed in a shootout with police.
According to a news agency close to the rebel group, the PKK, which maintains bases in northern Iraq, claimed responsibility for the suicide attack. The Turkish Interior Ministry also identified one of the attackers as a member of the banned group. It said efforts were still underway to identify the second attacker.
The attack came just hours before Turkey’s parliament reopened after its three-month summer recess with an address by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
According to the Interior Ministry, the two attackers arrived at the scene in a light commercial vehicle that they had confiscated from a veterinarian in the central province of Kayseri. The pro-government daily Sabah reported that they shot the man in the head and dumped his body in a roadside ditch. They then drove the vehicle to Ankara, about 300 kilometers away.
“Our heroic police officers used their intuition to resist the terrorists as soon as they got out of the vehicle,” Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya told reporters. “One of them blew himself up while the other was shot in the head before he had a chance to blow himself up.”
“We will continue our fight against terrorism, its collaborators, the (drug) dealers, gangs and organized crime organizations with determination,” he said.
Police found plastic explosives, hand grenades and a rocket launcher at the scene, according to a statement from the ministry.
Erdogan delivered his speech in parliament as planned and called the attack “the last stand of terrorism.”
“The miscreants who are targeting the peace and security of citizens have not been able to achieve their goals and will never achieve them,” he said.
The president reiterated his administration’s goal of establishing a 30-kilometer security zone along Turkey’s border with Syria to protect Turkey’s southern border from attacks.
Turkey has carried out numerous cross-border offensives against the PKK in northern Iraq. Since 2016, the country has also made incursions into northern Syria to drive out the Islamic State group and a Kurdish militia group known by the initials YPG, and controls vast areas in the region.
Turkey views the YPG as an extension of the PKK, which is classified as a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. The PKK has been waging an insurgency against Turkey since 1984. Tens of thousands of people have died in the conflict.
Last year, a bomb explosion in a busy pedestrian street in Istanbul killed six people, including two children. More than 80 others were injured. Turkey blamed the PKK and YPG for the attack.
Surveillance camera footage on Sunday showed the vehicle stopping in front of the Interior Ministry, a man getting out and rushing toward the building’s entrance before blowing himself up. A second man can be seen following him.
Earlier television footage showed bomb squads working near a vehicle in the area, which is near the Turkish Grand National Assembly and other government buildings. A rocket launcher could be seen near the vehicle.
Turkish authorities later imposed a temporary ban on images from the crime scene.
Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said an investigation into the “terrorist attack” had been launched.
“These attacks will in no way hinder Turkey’s fight against terrorism,” he wrote on X. “Our fight against terrorism will continue with greater determination.”
Police closed access to the city center, tightened security measures and warned citizens that they would carry out controlled explosions of suspicious packages.
The two police officers are being treated at a hospital and are not in serious condition, Yerlikaya said.
Egypt, which has normalized relations with Turkey after a decade of tensions, condemned the attack. In a brief statement from the Foreign Ministry, Egypt expressed its solidarity with Turkey.
The US Embassy in Ankara and other foreign missions also released messages condemning the attack.
In his speech, Erdogan did not specify when the Turkish parliament might ratify Sweden’s membership in NATO.
After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year, Stockholm applied for NATO membership alongside Finland. While Finland has now joined, Turkey blocked Sweden’s membership in the military alliance, accusing the country of not doing enough to prevent groups like the PKK from operating on its soil. In a post on X, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said Stockholm “strongly condemns today’s terrorist attack in Ankara.”
“We reiterate our commitment to long-term cooperation with Turkey in the fight against terrorism and wish a speedy and full recovery of the injured,” he wrote in the Turkish government’s preferred spelling for the country.
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Associated Press writers Cinar Kiper in Bodrum, Turkey, Robert Badendieck in Istanbul and Jari Tanner in Helsinki, Finland, contributed.