TURKEY: Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced that Turkish authorities have apprehended 2,554 fugitives as part of a nationwide counter-terrorism operation initiated following a bomb explosion near government facilities in Ankara one week ago.
Turkey said this week that all targets controlled by the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia and the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) were “legitimate targets” for its forces after the PKK claimed accountability for the bombing that occurred last Sunday, which left two police officers injured and the two attackers dead.
Ankara stated that the assailants originated from Syria, but the U.S.-supported Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), led by the YPG militia, which Turkey considers a terrorist group linked to the PKK, refuted this assertion.
The European Union and the United States deem the PKK a terrorist group, but not the YPG.
Following the attack, Ankara intensified its air strikes and ground-based assaults on militant targets in northern Syria and Iraq, simultaneously increasing security operations within its own borders.
Yerlikaya stated on the social media platform X that the apprehension of the fugitives was carried out under a nationwide effort known as “Operation Heroes.”
“We will not allow fugitive criminals to roam our streets. We are determined to catch them and hand them over to justice,” he stated, without mentioning which groups those apprehended belonged to.
Yerlikaya said that the authorities have been looking for 12 fugitives for more than a decade, 91 individuals have been sought for 5 to 10 years, and 2,451 individuals for less than five years.
Later on Sunday, Turkey’s defence ministry announced that the military had launched new airstrikes on Kurdish terrorists in northern Syria, destroying six targets, including an oil refinery used by the insurgents and suspected militant shelters and storage facilities.
In a statement, the ministry added that several militants had been “neutralised” during the attacks, which began at 1900 GMT, but it did not specify which parts of Syria they had targeted.
Ankara commonly uses the term “neutralised” to mean killed.
Turkey, having conducted multiple incursions into northern Syria targeting the YPG, has indicated that it might contemplate a ground operation in Syria.
The YPG is a central component of the SDF forces within the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State militants. The longstanding U.S. support for them has been a source of tension with Ankara.
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