Turkey has launched air strikes on Kurdish targets in Iraq and Syria, a week after a bombing in Istanbul which it blames on Kurdish militants.
The strikes – dubbed Operation Claw-Sword – hit Kurdish bases which were being used to launch attacks on Turkey, the defence ministry said.
A Syrian-Kurdish spokesperson said two villages populated with internally displaced people were hit. The banned Kurdish PKK group denies carrying out the Istanbul attack.
As the air strikes began, the Turkish defence ministry tweeted that the “hour of reckoning” had arrived, alongside a picture of a fighter plane taking off and footage of an explosion.
“Terrorists’ shelters, bunkers, caves, tunnels, and warehouses were successfully destroyed,” said Turkey’s Defence Minister Hulusi Akar.
The Turkish defence ministry later said the strikes on Kurdish militant bases in northern Syria and northern Iraq destroyed 89 targets.
