Türkiye launches air raids against Kurdish militants in Syria and Iraq, 31 dead

Türkiye launched Operation Claw-Sword air raids against outlawed Kurdish militants in Iraq and Syria on Sunday, almost a week after a deadly blast in central Istanbul, the defence minister said.“We are starting Operation Claw-Sword from now on,” said Türkiye's defence minister Hulusi Akar as per an AFP report. A defence ministry statement said he directed the offensive from the air force operations centre with top commanders, before the planes left their bases to hit the targets.

Türkiye's air force launched an attack on Kurdish bases in northern Syria.

The Turkish defence ministry tweeted, “The hour of reckoning has come.” In another post, the ministry shared a video of the Kurdish base being hit with precision strikes.

British-based war monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has said that at least 31 people have been killed so far in the air raids.

Notably, Türkiye has blamed the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and its affiliate Syria Kurdish groups for the blast that rocked central Istanbul last week, killing 13.

According to reports, the target of Turkish attacks has been the northern Syrian border city of Kobane. Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) confirmed that the city had been targetted in the attacks.

“Kobane, the city that defeated ISIS, is subjected to bombardment by the aircraft of the Turkish occupation,” tweeted SDF spokesperson Farhad Shami.

“The Turkish occupation aircraft are shelling the al-Beilonya village which is heavily populated with Afrin IDPs who were forcibly displaced from Afrin in 2018,” he added.

Notably, Turkish interior minister Suleyman Soylu in the aftermath of the blastsaid that the order for the attack was given in Kobane, where Turkish forces have carried out operations against the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia in recent years.

Soylu added that the bomber had passed through Afrin, another region in northern Syria, which has been bombed by Turkish jets on Sunday.

The PKK and YPG have denied any involvement in the blast. Meanwhile, Turkish police has captured the chief suspect Alham Albashir -- a Syrian woman who is said to have been working for Kurdish militants, in an Istanbul suburb.

(With inputs from agencies)

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