State Department drafting a sternly worded letter.
Turkish jets struck camps belonging to Kurdish militants in northern Iraq, authorities said Saturday, the first strike since a peace deal was announced in 2013, as Ankara also bombed Islamic State positions in Syria for a second straight night.
The strikes in Iraq targeted the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, whose affiliates have been effective in battling the Islamic State group. The strikes further complicate the U.S.-led war against the extremists, which has relied on Kurdish forces making gains in both Iraq and Syria.
A spokesman in Iraq for the PKK, which has been fighting Turkey for autonomy since 1984 and is considered a terrorist organization by Ankara and its allies, said the strikes likely spelled the end of the peace agreement.
“Turkey has basically ended the cease-fire,” Zagros Hiwa told The Associated Press, declining to elaborate further. He said the PKK was still assessing the damage caused by the strikes, though they didn’t appear to cause casualties.
The jets hit PKK shelters, bunkers, caves, storages facilities and other “logistical points,” a statement from the Turkish prime minister’s office said. It said five areas were targeted, including the Qandil mountains, where the PKK’s command is based. The statement did not specify Islamic State targets that were struck in Syria in a second night of bombings, but described the airstrikes in both Syria and Iraq as being “effective.”
Hiwa said the jets struck villages on Qandil although the PKK base was not hit.
Turkey’s military also shelled Islamic State and PKK positions in Syria from across the Turkish border, the government said. It vowed to press ahead with operations against the PKK and IS, saying it was “determined to take all steps to ensure peace and security for our people.”