Turkey launched air strikes over northern areas of Syria and Iraq, the Turkish Defence Ministry stated on Sunday, concentrating on Kurdish teams that Ankara holds liable for final week’s bomb assault in Istanbul.

Warplanes attacked bases of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, and the Syrian People’s Protection Units, or YPG, the ministry stated in a press release, which was accompanied by photographs of F-16 jets taking off and photographs of a strike from an aerial drone.

There was no quick remark from both group.

The ministry cited Turkey’s proper to self-defence beneath Article 51 of the United Nations Charter in launching an operation it referred to as Claw-Sword late on Saturday night time. It stated it was concentrating on areas “used as a base by terrorists in their attacks on our country”.

Turkey stated it was searching for to stop assaults, safe its southern border and “destroy terrorism at its source”.

The air strikes got here after a bomb rocked a bustling avenue within the coronary heart of Istanbul on November 13, killing six individuals and wounding over 80 others.

Turkish authorities blamed the assault on the PKK and its Syrian affiliate the YPG. The Kurdish militant teams have, nonetheless, denied involvement.

Ankara and Washington each contemplate the PKK a terror group, however disagree on the standing of the YPG. Under the banner of the Syrian Democratic Forces, the YPG has been allied with the US within the combat towards the so-called Islamic State group in Syria.

The PKK has fought an armed insurgency in Turkey since 1984. The battle has killed tens of hundreds of individuals since then.

The DHA information company reported that F-16s took off from airfields in Malatya and Diyarbakir in southern Turkey whereas drones had been launched from Batman.

Defence Minister Hulusi Akar oversaw the air strikes from an operations centre and congratulated pilots and floor workers. “Our aim is to ensure the security of our 85 million citizens and our borders and to retaliate for any treacherous attack on our country,” he stated, based on a ministry assertion.

Mr Akar added: “Shelters, bunkers, caves, tunnels and warehouses belonging to terrorists were destroyed with great success. … The so-called headquarters of the terrorist organisation were also hit and destroyed with direct hits.”

The air strikes focused Kobani, a strategic Kurdish-majority Syrian city close to the Turkish border that Ankara had beforehand tried to overhaul in its plans to ascertain a “safe zone” alongside northern Syria.

Syrian Democratic Forces spokesperson Farhad Shami in a tweet added that two villages closely populated with displaced individuals had been beneath Turkish bombardment. He stated the strikes had resulted in “deaths and injuries”.

Local media reported that the northern Iraqi metropolis of Sinjar was additionally focused. Syrian opposition media reported that the Turkish air strikes focused Kurdish-led SDF positions.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition warfare monitor, reported that the strikes had additionally hit Syrian military positions and that not less than 12 had been killed, together with SDF and Syrian troopers.

The observatory stated about 25 air strikes had been carried out by Turkish warplanes on websites within the countryside of Aleppo, Raqqa and Hasakah.

In neighbouring Iraq, the US Consulate General in Erbil stated it’s monitoring “credible open-source reports” of potential Turkish navy motion in northern Syria and northern Iraq within the coming days.

The Kurdish-led authority in north-east Syria stated on Saturday that if Turkey assaults, then fighters within the space would have “the right to resist and defend our areas in a major way that will take the region into a long war”.

Turkey has launched three main cross-border operations into Syria since 2016 and already controls some territories within the north. Earlier this yr, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened one other operation in northern Syria.

Turkish forces launched a contemporary floor and air operation, dubbed Claw-Lock, towards the PKK in northern Iraq in April.