The Turkish defence ministry says its warplanes have carried out raids on suspected Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq on Sunday following a suicide attack on a government building in the Turkish capital.
A ministry statement said some 20 targets of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, were “destroyed” in the aerial operation, including caves, shelters and depots.
Earlier, a suicide bomber detonated an explosive device near an entrance of the Ministry of Interior Affairs, injuring two police officers. A second assailant was killed in a shootout with police on Sunday, the interior minister said.
An news agency close to the PKK said the group has claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing.
The attack occurred hours before Turkey’s parliament was set to reopen after its three-month summer recess with an address by President Recep Erdogan.
Two police officers were slightly wounded in the bombing near an entrance to the Ministry of Interior Affairs, minister Ali Yerlikaya said on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
Assailants who arrived at the scene inside a light commercial vehicle carried out the attack, he said.
“Our heroic police officers, through their intuition, resisted the terrorists as soon as they got out of the vehicle,” Yerlikaya later told reporters.
“One of them blew himself up, while the other one was shot in the head before he had a chance to blow himself up.”
“Our fight against terrorism, their collaborators, the (drug) dealers, gangs and organized crime organisations will continue with determination,” he said.