UPDATED: Turkey strikes Kurdish militants after deadly attack on defence firm

Turkey launched airstrikes on Kurdish militant targets in Iraq and Syria on Wednesday, hours after a deadly attack on a defence firm near Ankara killed five people, an assault the government blamed on the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

The attack came as Turkey’s political establishment appeared to be leaning towards a political, negotiated solution to the decades-long conflict with the Kurdish militants.

The timing was not lost on the main pro-Kurdish party, Dem, the third largest force in parliament, which said it was “noteworthy that the attack took place just as Turkish society was talking about a solution and the possibility of dialogue”.

Turkey said it launched strikes on Kurdish militants in Iraq and Syria Wednesday after blaming them for an attack that killed five people at a defence firm near Ankara.

A further 22 people were wounded in the attack, which the government said was “very likely” carried out by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Hours later, “an air operation was carried out against terrorist targets in the north of Iraq and Syria,” the defence ministry said in a statement.

“A total of 32 targets belonging to the terrorists were successfully destroyed,” it said, adding that operations were continuing.

Listed as a terror group by Turkey and its Western allies, the PKK has waged a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state. It has a number of rear bases in Kurdish regions of Iraq and Syria.

In the attack that sparked the strikes, a huge explosion rocked the headquarters of state-run Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) some 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of Ankara shortly after 3:30 pm.

It sent clouds of smoke into the air as the sound of gunfire rang out, Turkish media reported, with the incident quickly denounced by Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya as a “terror attack”.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was in Russia for talks with Vladimir Putin, called it a “heinous” attack on Turkey’s defence industry “targeting the survival of our country,” in a message on X.

Yerlikaya said three of the injured were in critical condition and that the two attackers, “a woman and a man”, had been “neutralised”.

There was no immediate claim for the attack but Yerlikaya said: “The way in which this action was carried out is very probably linked to the PKK.”

He said efforts to identify the perpetrators of the attack were ongoing.

Defence Minister Yasar Guler also pointed the finger at “PKK villains”.

“As they always do, they tried to disturb our nation’s peace through a despicable and dishonourable attack… we will make them suffer for what they have done,” he said.

Turkey’s vice president Cevdet Yilmaz said four of the victims were TAI employees while the fifth was a taxi driver. Media reports earlier said the assailants had killed him and taken his taxi to carry out the attack.

– World leaders condemn attack –

An unconfirmed report by private channel NTV said a “group of terrorists” had burst into the building, one of whom “blew himself up” while other outlets reported exchanges of fire for more than an hour.

Haberturk TV said there was a “hostage situation”, with another media pundit saying “a number of hostages” had been rescued.

Turkish authorities imposed a blackout of live images from the scene.

One of Turkey’s top defence firms and a major arms producer, TAI employs 15,500 people and has a vast production site covering an area of five million square metres, its website says.

Photo: A CCTV image of one of the alleged attackers in the terror attack on the TUSAS Ankara Kahramankazan site