<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Turkish warplanes launched a new round of airstrikes against Kurdish militant targets in Iraq on Wednesday hours after the foreign minister warned that Turkey would hit the militant group's positions in Syria and Iraq in retaliation for a suicide bombing in Ankara earlier this week.</span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, claimed responsibility for Sunday's attack outside the Interior Ministry in Ankara in which one attacker blew himself up and another would-be bomber was killed in a shootout with police. Two police were wounded in the attack.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Turkish jets targeted 22 suspected PKK positions in northern Iraq on Wednesday, destroying caves, shelters and depots used by the militants, the Turkish defense ministry said. The PKK maintains bases in the region, where its leadership has a foothold.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It was the Turkish air force's third airstrike against suspected Kurdish militant sites in northern Iraq following the attack, which came as parliament prepared to reopen after a long summer recess. Meanwhile, dozens of people suspected of links to the PKK have been detained in a series of raids across Turkey.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ankara said a large number of PKK militants were “neutralized” in the strikes.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There was no immediate comment from Kurdish officials in Iraq.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told a news conference that Turkish intelligence officials have established that the two assailants arrived from Syria, where they had been trained. He said Turkey would now target facilities in Syria and Iraq belonging to the PKK, or its affiliated Kurdish militia group in Syria, which is known as People's Defense Units, or YPG.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“From now on, all infrastructure, superstructure and energy facilities belonging to the PKK or the YPG in Iraq and Syria are legitimate targets of our security forces, armed forces and intelligence elements,” Fidan said. “Our armed forces’ response to this terrorist attack will be extremely clear and they will regret committing such an act."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A Syrian Kurdish commander denied on Wednesday that the Ankara attackers were trained in Syria or crossed into Turkey from Syria.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mazloum Abdi, the commander of the U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Force that controls large parts of northeastern Syria tweeted that those who carried out the attack in Ankara “did not pass through our territories.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Syrian Kurdish-led force is a coalition of several factions, including the YPG.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“We are not a side in the internal conflict in Turkey,” Abdi wrote. He added that Turkey is looking “for a pretext to legitimatize its continuous attacks on our region and to launch a new aggression and this is raising our concerns.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Abdi, who is wanted by Turkey on terrorism charges, said that targeting the infrastructure and economic targets in northeast Syria and cities “is considered a war crime.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Fidan later joined a previously unannounced security meeting with Turkey's interior minister, defense minister, top military commander and intelligence chief, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Iraqi Defense Minister Thabet Muhammad Al-Abbasi was scheduled to visit Turkey on Thursday, the agency also reported.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The PKK has led a decades-long insurgency in Turkey and is considered a terror organization by the United States and the European Union. Tens of thousands of people have died since the start of the conflict in 1984.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Meanwhile, Turkish intelligence agents killed a wanted Kurdish militant in an operation in Syria, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported Wednesday.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The militant, identified as Nabo Kele Hayri, who also went by Mazlum Afrin, was wanted for his alleged role in planning an attack last year on Istanbul’s main pedestrian street, Istiklal. The attack killed six people. AP/UNB</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">bnbd24/kh</div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div>