Turkey retaliates against PKK in Iraq
March 14, 2016, 2:52 pm

A family mourns one of the 37 people killed in the suicide bomb blast in Ankara March 13 [Xinhua]

The air raids, which struck 18 PKK positions including training camps and ammunition depots, came less than a day after a suicide bombing at a crowded downtown commercial area in the capital Ankara killed at least 37 people.

More than 100 people were injured in the blast, hospital sources said.

Reuters quoted unnamed security officials who said they had identified the severed head of a female PKK member, who is believed to have been one of two people to have carried out the attack.

“Our people should not worry, the struggle against terrorism will for certain end in success and terrorism will be brought to its knees,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erodgan said in a statement.

The attack in central Ankara is the second in less than a month.

A February 17 attack on a bus carrying Turkish troops killed 29, including many civilians.

“These terror organizations and their pawns are targeting our innocent citizens in the most immoral and heartless way as they lose the fight against our security forces,” Erdogan also said.

Turkey has been in a renewed war with the PKK, which has fought Ankara for decades in a bid to carve out an independent state in southeastern Turkey.

The violence has escalated in recent months.

The PKK say they have killed over 200 soldiers in the past nine months; the Turkish military says it has killed over 1,000 PKK fighters in southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq.

On Monday, the Turkish military intensified its current counter-terrorism operations in the southeast provinces bordering Iraq and Syria.

On March 13, the Turkish military said it had killed 11 PKK fighters in the southeastern Hakkari province.

On March 4, the PKK said its fighters had killed two Turkish police officers in a car bomb attack, followed by a rocket attack which injured 35 in the southeast town of Nusaybin.

A day earlier, two female PKK fighters were killed during a police siege in Istanbul.

The BRICS Post with inputs from Agencies