Türkiye strikes targets of Kurdish fighters in Syria and Ireland…

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) – Turkey attacked suspected Kurdish militant targets in Syria and Iraq for a second day on Thursday, following an attack on the headquarters of a key defense company that killed at least five people, the state news agency reported.

Anadolu Agency reported that the National Intelligence Organization targeted numerous “strategic locations” used by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, the PKK or Syrian Kurdish militias affiliated with the militants. According to the report, the targets included military, intelligence, energy and infrastructure facilities as well as ammunition depots. A security official said armed drones were used in Thursday’s attacks.

The Turkish Air Force carried out airstrikes on similar targets in northern Syria and northern Iraq on Wednesday, hours after government officials blamed the PKK for a deadly attack on the headquarters of aerospace and defense company TUSAS. The Ministry of Defense reported that more than 30 targets were destroyed in the air offensive.

According to reports, the attackers – a man and a woman – arrived at the TUSAS headquarters on the outskirts of Ankara in a taxi, which they commandeered after killing the driver. Armed with assault rifles, they detonated explosives and opened fire, killing four people in TUSAS, including security personnel and a mechanical engineer.

According to the interior minister, security teams were deployed immediately after the attack began, around 3:30 p.m. Two attackers were also killed and over 20 people were injured in the attack.

The PKK made no immediate statement on the attack or the Turkish airstrikes.

TUSAS designs, manufactures and assembles civil and military aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles and other defense and space industry systems. Its defense systems were considered key to Turkey gaining an advantage in the fight against Kurdish fighters.

The attack came a day after the leader of a Turkish far-right nationalist party allied with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan raised the possibility that the imprisoned PKK leader could be granted parole if he renounced violence and disbanded his organization.

Abdullah Ocalan’s group is fighting for autonomy in southeastern Turkey in a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people since the 1980s. Türkiye and its Western allies consider it a terrorist group.