Türkiye hits PKK terrorist strongholds in Iraq ... in response to suicide bombing attack in Ankara

Türkiye has carried out an airstrike in northern Iraq after a suicide bombing attack in capital Ankara, its defence ministry said.

The airstrike destroyed 20 targets belonging to the Kurdish militant group PKK, which claimed responsibility for the bombing, per Sky News.

Earlier on October 1, two police officers were injured in an attack in Ankara, hours before parliament was scheduled to re-open after a three-month summer recess.

Two terrorists carried out the attack, Türkiye's interior minister Ali Yerlikaya said. One died in the blast and the other was killed in a shoot-out with police.

In a statement on X, formerly Twitter, a Turkish government spokesperson said: "Air operations were carried out against terrorist targets in the Metina, Hakurk, Kandil and Gara regions in the north of Iraq at 9.00pm on 1 October and the Separatist Terrorist Organization (BTO).

"A total of 20 targets, consisting of caves, bunkers, and warehouses used by, and considered to contain, the terrorists responsible, were destroyed.

"Many terrorists were neutralised by using the maximum amount of domestic and national ammunition in the operations carried out.

"The Turkish Armed Forces, coming from the heart of our noble nation, will continue the fight against terrorism with determination and determination for the survival and security of our homeland and nation, as in the past, until there is not a single terrorist left."

They added measures were taken not to harm civilians in the attack.

A spokesperson for President Recep Tayipp Erdogan added: "With these operations, the terrorist organization has suffered another major blow.

"As our president clearly emphasized, the enemies of Türkiye will suddenly feel the breath of our state's security forces on their necks one night.

"In a process where the fight against terrorism is so sensitive, effective and successful, it is of great importance that the national and international public be vigilant against disinformation activities, especially those attempted to be carried out by the terrorist organization."

In Türkiye, justice minister Yilmaz Tunc had said an investigation has been launched into the "terror attack".

"These attacks will in no way hinder Türkiye's fight against terrorism," he wrote on X.

"Our fight against terrorism will continue with more determination."

The bombing, the first to hit Ankara in a number of years, comes almost a year after six people were killed and 81 were wounded in an explosion in a busy pedestrian street in central Istanbul in November last year.