Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday indicated that he could go beyond air strikes and launch a ground operation in northern Iraq and northern Syria to eliminate the terror threat,
While talking to the reporters after returning from Qatar to Turkey, Erdogan said, “This is not limited to just an air operation.” “As we’ve said before, if someone disturbs our country and lands, we will make them pay the price. So, there are terrorist organizations in our south that are planning many attacks or that carry out such attacks and pose a threat (to Turkiye),” he added.
These remarks came after Turkey launched Operation Claw-Sword, a cross-border aerial campaign against the terror group Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)/YPP which has an illegal hideout across Iraq and Syrian borders, reported Anadolu Agency.
The Turkish air operation came after last Sunday’s terror attack that rocked Istanbul’s crowded Istiklal Avenue and killed at least six people and left 81 injured.
After the attack, Turkish police arrested the suspect who planted the bomb on Istanbul’s Istiklal street.
“We consider it to be a terrorist act as a result of an attacker, whom we consider to be a woman, detonating the bomb,”Fuat Oktayas said.
