ANKARA: Turkish forces have killed 58 Kurdish militants in northern Syria in overnight attacks on militant targets, the Defence Ministry said on Saturday, as conflict in the region escalated nearly a week after a bomb attack in Ankara.

Turkiye this week said all targets belonging to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militia and the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia were “legitimate targets” for its forces, after the PKK claimed responsibility for Sunday’s bombing in Ankara which wounded two police officers and killed the two attackers.

Turkiye said the attackers came from Syria. The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) — a coalition of rebel groups spearheaded by the YPG militia — denied this.

Since the bomb attack, Ankara has launched a barrage of air strikes and ground-based attacks against militant targets in northern Syria and Iraq, while ramping up security operations at home.

“Targets belonging to PKK/YPG terrorists in northern Syria’s Euphrates Shield, Olive Branch, and Peace Spring operation areas were hit strongly all night long,” the ministry said, referring to regions where Turkiye has previously mounted incursions.

The ministry said the operations, which it says are carried out under self-defence rights, had “neutralised” 58 militants in the region. Ankara typically uses the term “neutralised” to mean killed. Late on Friday, the ministry had said Turkiye’s military had conducted air strikes in northern Syria, destroying 15 militant targets where it said militants were believed to be.

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said that police in the eastern province of Van had captured six people suspected of PKK links and in preparation of an attack. Following the bomb attack, authorities have carried out raids and operations across the country, seizing dozens of people.

Erdogan’s warning

Speaking at his ruling AK Party’s congress in Ankara, Presi­dent Tay­yip Erdogan repeated his warning that Turkiye “may suddenly come one night”, a term he has often used to target militants in Syria and Iraq.

“We will implement our strategy of ending terror at its root with determination, and hold the PKK, FETO, and Daesh to account over every drop of blood they have spilled,” he said referring to the network of US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen whom Ankara accuses of orchestrating a failed coup attempt in 2016 (FETO), and the militant Islamic State group.

Ankara and Washington held a series of calls following the incident, with Turkiye saying non-conflict mechanisms with the parties on the ground would be improved, but vowing to continue hitting militants in Syria and Iraq.

Seven civilians killed

Shelling by government forces targeting several locations in rebel-held northwest Syria killed seven civilians including four children on Saturday, a war monitor said.

The Damascus regime has been bombing opposition-held areas in apparent retaliation for an attack on a military academy graduation ceremony in Homs on Thursday that killed dozens of people.

“Seven civilians, including four children, were killed in ground bom­bardment by regime forces on several locations”, the Syrian Obser­­va­tory for Human Rights war monitor reported.

It said three civilians, among them two children, died when government forces shelled a market and homes in the city of Idlib, and two more children were killed in shelling of the Idlib countryside.

Published in Dawn, October 8th, 2023