Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has used the recent deadly bombing in Istanbul which the Turkish government immediately blamed on Kurdish PKK and YPG forces, as an excuse to launch several air strikes on Kurdish forces in northern Syria and Iraq. He also uses the bombing as a pretext to launch a long-planned cross-border ground operation, despite calls by the US and Russia for restraint to be shown. Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar was quoted by the official Anadolu news agency as saying that “so far 471 targets have been struck and 254 terrorists were neutralized in the operation”, while the Kurdish YPG which strongly denies any involvement in the Istanbul bombing says that 30 civilians and 11 of its fighters were killed.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the strikes – were “only the beginning” and in a speech to AKP party members last Tuesday, reaffirmed his determination to create a “security corridor” in Syria.
Then he boasted: “We have been bearing down on terrorists for a few days with our planes, cannons and guns. God willing, we will root out all of them as soon as possible, together with our tanks, our soldiers. We are continuing the air operation and will come down hard on the terrorists from land at the most convenient time for us.”
It should be noted that the US Pentagon expressed concern about the Turkish air strikes in northern Syria, saying that they threaten the safety of US military personnel and stressed that the escalating situation jeopardised years of progress against ISIS militants.