Turkey strikes Kurdish militant targets in Syria and Iraq for a second day

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey struck suspected Kurdish militant targets in Syria and Iraq for a second day on Thursday following an attack on the premises of a key defense company which killed at least five people, the state-run news agency reported.

The National Intelligence Organization targeted numerous “strategic locations” used by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, PKK, or by Syrian Kurdish militia that are affiliated with the militants, the Anadolu Agency reported. The targets included military, intelligence, energy and infrastructure facilities and ammunition depots, the report said. A security official said armed drones were used in Thursday’s strikes.

On Wednesday, Turkey's air force carried out airstrikes against similar targets in northern Syria and northern Iraq, hours after government officials blamed the deadly attack at the headquarters of the aerospace and defense company TUSAS, on the PKK.

Defense Minister Yasar Guler said Thursday that 47 alleged PKK targets were destroyed in Wednesday’s airstrikes — 29 in Iraq and 18 in Syria.

“Our noble nation should rest assured that we will continue with increasing determination our struggle to eliminate the evil forces that threaten the security and peace of our country and people, until the last terrorist disappears from this geography,” Guler said.

The assailants — a man and a woman — arrived at the TUSAS premises in the outskirts of Ankara in a taxi they commandeered after killing its driver, reports said. Armed with assault riffles, they set off explosives and opened fire, killing four people at TUSAS, including a security personnel and a mechanical engineer.

Security teams were dispatched as soon as the attack started at around 3:30 pm, the interior minister said. The two assailants were also killed and more than 20 people were injured in the attack.

There was no immediate statement from the PKK on the attack or the Turkish airstrikes.

In Syria, the main U.S.-backed force said Turkish strikes in the north of the country killed 12 civilians and wounded 25.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said Turkish warplanes and drones struck bakeries, power stations, oil facilities and local police checkpoints.

TUSAS designs, manufactures and assembles civilian and military aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles and other defense industry and space systems. Its defense systems have been credited as key to Turkey gaining an upper hand in its fight against Kurdish militants.

The attack occurred a day after the leader of Turkey’s far-right nationalist party that’s allied with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan raised the possibility that the PKK’s imprisoned leader could be granted parole if he renounces violence and disbands his organization.

Abdullah Ocalan, who was captured in 1999, is serving a life sentence on a prison island off Istanbul.

In a related development, his nephew Omer Ocalan announced on the social platform X that on Wednesday family members were allowed to visit him for the first time since March 2020.

Omer Ocalan, a lawmaker from Turkey's pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party, also conveyed a message from Abdullah Ocalan, saying he was being kept in isolation and offering to work to end the conflict “if the conditions are right.”

"I have the theoretical and practical power to (transform) this process from one grounded in conflict and violence to one that is grounded on law and politics,” Omer Ocalan quoted his uncle as saying.

The PKK has been fighting for autonomy in southeast Turkey in a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people since the 1980s. It is considered a terrorist group by Turkey and its Western allies.

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Associated Press writer Bassem Mroue contributed from Beirut.

Emergency and security teams are deployed outside the Turkish state-run aerospace and defense company Turkish Aerospace Industries Inc. on the outskirts of Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (Yavuz Ozden/Dia Photo via AP)

Emergency and security teams are deployed outside Turkish Aerospace Industries Inc. at the outskirts of Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (Yavuz Ozden/Dia Photo via AP)

Ambulances wait in line outside of Turkish Aerospace Industries Inc. at the outskirts of Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo)

Emergency and security teams are deployed outside of Turkish Aerospace Industries Inc. at the outskirts of Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo)

Emergency and security teams are deployed outside of Turkish Aerospace Industries Inc. at the outskirts of Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo)

People gather outside of Turkish Aerospace Industries Inc. at the outskirts of Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo)

People gather outside of the Turkish Aerospace Industries Inc. on the outskirts of Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (Yavuz Ozden/Dia Photo via AP)

In this image take from security camera video shows two people with guns and backpacks during an attack on the premises of the Turkish state-run aerospace and defence company (TUSAS ), on the outskirts of Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday Oct. 23, 2024. (Validated UGC via AP)

Emergency and security teams are deployed outside of Turkish Aerospace Industries Inc. at the outskirts of Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (Yavuz Ozden/Dia Photo via AP)

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian patrol ships drove a Chinese coast guard vessel away from a survey vessel in a disputed area of the South China Sea for the second time in three days, Indonesian authorities said Thursday.

Indonesia's Maritime Security Agency said a Chinese ship approached the MV Geo Coral on Monday and Wednesday, interrupting a seismic data survey being conducted by the state energy company PT Pertamina in a part of the South China Sea claimed by both countries.

Asked about the Indonesian statement, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said the Coast Guard vessel had carried out routine patrols in waters under Chinese jurisdiction. “China is ready to enhance communication and consultation with Indonesia through diplomatic channels and properly handle maritime differences between the two countries,” he added.

China’s “nine-dash line,” which it uses to roughly demarcate its claim to most of the South China Sea, overlaps with a section of Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone that extends from the Natuna Islands.

Indonesia does not have a formal territorial dispute with China over the South China Sea but has become increasingly protective of its rights in the region, while Chinese ships have regularly entered the area Indonesia calls the North Natuna Sea, fueling tensions between the countries.

Indonesian authorities said the Chinese coast guard ship CCG 5402 was first detected near MV Geo Coral on Monday. An Indonesian patrol ship contacted the ship, whose crew insisted that the area was under China's jurisdiction before Indonesian coast guard and navy ships drove the Chinese ship away.

On Wednesday morning, the Chinese ship again approached the site of the seismic survey and was driven away, according to the Maritime Security Agency.

Earlier, the agency had said the second encounter took place Thursday morning.

A video distributed by the agency showed Indonesian coast guard officers speaking to their Chinese counterparts by radio and the China’s coast guard officials.

“This is China Coast Guard 5402. China has indisputable authority over Nansha islands and the adjacent waters,” says the the Chinese officer. “Chinese Coast Guard regular patrol in and above these domestic jurisdictional waters is unquestionable."

The Indonesian coast guard officer replies that the China’s vessel was in Indonesia’s Exclusive Economic Zone.

“Indonesia’s Maritime Security Agency will continue to conduct intensive patrols and monitoring in the waters of North Natuna to ensure that seismic survey activities run smoothly and maintain Indonesia’s sovereignty and sovereign rights,” said the statement.

Clashes at sea between China and its maritime rivals have become increasingly common in recent years, driving tensions especially with the Philippines and Vietnam. Chinese ships also regularly patrol off the island of Borneo and near James Shoal east of the Natuna islands, China’s southernmost territorial claim which Malaysia says belongs to it.

China’s construction and militarization of islands in the South China Sea have increased tensions as the U.S. and others have challenged China’s claims with the dispatch of ships and planes to assert the right to freedom of navigation.

A 2016 international arbitration ruling involving the Philippines invalidated most of China’s sweeping claims in the sea, but China has ignored the ruling and called it a sham.

China has in the past explained its presence in the waters on the basis of “traditional fishing rights.”

In this undated released by Indonesian Maritime Security Agency (BAKAMLA), a Maritime Security Agency uses a binocular to monitor the movement of a a Chinese coast guard vessel in the water of North Natuna Sea in the disputed area of the South China Sea, Indonesia, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (BAKAMLA via AP)