Turkish warplanes pounded Kurdish rebel bases in northern Iraq Monday, the day after a suicide car bomb tore through downtown Ankara killing at least 36 people, the third attack on the capital in five months.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the latest carnage, which reduced cars and buses to charred hulks on a busy road in the heart of the city, wounding more than 120 people.
But Ankara believes one of the bombers was a woman with ties to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a Turkish official told AFP on Monday.
Hours after the attack, Turkish fighter bombers hit arms depots and PKK shelters in mountainous northern Iraq, the army said, quoted by the state-run Anatolia news agency.
The strikes came as the government announced three more deaths overnight from Sunday’s huge explosion at a bus stop near a busy square in central Ankara.
Health Minister Mehmet Muezzinoglu gave a new overall toll of 37, but said this included at least one attacker and possibly two.
The military said the PKK targets were hit “with precision”, with a rebel spokesman confirming the strikes and saying that so far, there was no clear picture of the damage caused.
Sunday’s attack bore similarities to another suicide car bombing on a convoy of military buses which killed 29 people in Ankara on February 17, but this time civilians were the target.
The February attack was claimed by the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), linked to the PKK, as revenge for Turkish military operations in the southeast.
The TAK warned of more attacks to come, including on tourist areas.
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