The Turkish Defense Ministry reported Sunday that Turkey has carried out lethal airstrikes over northern Syria and Iraq, aiming to hit Kurdish forces it believes are to blame for the bombing of Istanbul last week.
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Following the strikes, the Defense Ministry posted a photo of an F-16 fighter plane with the phrase, “Payback time! The scoundrels are being held to account for their treacherous attacks.” The DHA news agency reported that F-16s took off from airfields in Malatya and Diyarbakir in southern Turkey while drones were launched from Batman.
The ministry claimed that a total of 89 targets were destroyed and a “large number” of what it designated “terrorists” were killed in strikes that ranged from Tall Rifat in northwest Syria to the Qandil mountains in Iraq’s northeast.
Defense Minister Hulusi Akar oversaw the airstrikes from an operations center and congratulated pilots and ground staff. “Our aim is to ensure the security of our 85 million citizens and our borders and to retaliate for any treacherous attack on our country,” he said, according to a ministry statement.
Akar claimed that a wide range of targets “were destroyed with great success,” including what he described as the “the so-called headquarters of the terrorist organization,” without giving further details.
Other Turkish officials responded to the attacks. Presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin tweeted a photograph of the Turkish flag with the comment “Payback time for Istiklal” – a reference to the street where last week’s bombing happened.
The airstrikes targeted Kobani, a strategic Kurdish-majority Syrian town near the Turkish border that Ankara had previously attempted to take in its plans to establish a “safe zone” along northern Syria.
Syrian Democratic Forces spokesperson Farhad Shami in a tweet said that two villages heavily populated with displaced people were under Turkish bombardment. He said the strikes had resulted in 11 civilian deaths and destroyed a hospital, a power plant and grain silos.
The Women’s Protection Units, or YPJ, which is linked to the YPG, said the airstrikes targeted areas along the Turkey-Syria border including Kobani, Derbasiyeh and Ein Issa. “The airstrikes are random that target the people,” the YPJ media office said in written response to The Associated Press.
“The people who fought the Daesh terrorist organization are now under attack by Turkish warplanes,” it said, using an Arabic acronym to refer to the Islamic State group.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, reported that the strikes had also hit Syrian army positions and that at least 12 had been killed, including SDF and Syrian soldiers.
The observatory said about 25 airstrikes were carried out by Turkish warplanes on sites in the countryside of Aleppo, Raqqa and Hasakah.
The Syrian Defense Ministry said “several” Syrian soldiers were killed in the northern Aleppo countryside and Hasakah province. Syrian state media had previously reported three soldiers killed.
In neighboring Iraq, officials of the Kurdistan Regional Government said at least 32 PKK militants had been killed in 25 air raids.
The Kurdish-led authority in northeast Syria said Saturday that if Turkey attacks, then fighters in the area would have “the right to resist and defend our areas in a major way that will take the region into a long war.”
SDF commander Mazloum Abdi called on people to remain at home and abide by security forces’ instructions. “We are making every effort to avoid a major catastrophe. If war erupts, all will be affected,” he tweeted.
An SDF statement later said the attacks “will not remain unanswered. At the appropriate time and place, we will respond in a strong and effective manner.”