Turkish military planes pounded Kurdish rebel targets on Sunday (11 October), one day after the worst bomb attack in the country’s history killed up to 128 people and injured hundreds at a pro-Kurdish rally in Ankara.
The planes struck Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) targets in northern Iraq and southeastern Turkey, killing some 30-35 fighters, despite the militant group calling for a ceasefire and ordering its fighters to halt attacks on Turkish soil.
Ankara dismissed the PKK declaration as a ploy.
The renewed attacks on Kurdish targets comes after bombs detonated just seconds apart in Ankara on Satursday, as crowds gathered for a march to protest over the deaths of hundreds of people since the collapse of a ceasefire between security forces and the rebel PKK in July.
The scale of the attacks was bigger than the one in 2003, which was blamed on al-Qaeda, when two synagogues, the Istanbul HSBC Bank headquarters and the British consulate were hit, killing 62 people.
There was disagreement on the number of victims, as the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) said the death toll had risen to 128, while the prime minister’s office said late on Saturday that 95 people had been killed.
Turkish security officials blamed the Islamic State, which holds swathes of Syrian land bordering Turkey, but the group made no claim to the bombing.
