Operation Euphrates Shield, which was launched August 24 by Turkey, aims at improving security, supporting coalition forces and eliminating the terror threat along Turkey’s border using Free Syrian Army fighters backed by Turkish armor, artillery and jets.
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Turkish authorities are accusing Kurdish militants of detonating a vehicle bomb that wounded 50 people in front of the ruling party’s municipal headquarters Monday in the eastern city of Van.
A later statement also said that Turkish warplanes carried out an airstrike in the Avashin / Basyan region of northern Iraq and Çukurca in southeastern Hakkari province on Wedensday between 5:51 p.m. and – 6:10 p.m., hitting two PKK targets and killing four terrorists.
Kurdish militants claimed responsibility on Tuesday for a vehicle bombing in Turkey’s southeastern city of Van a day earlier and said it was partly a response to the removal from office of two dozen mayors from Kurdish-run municipalities.
It was the second assassination of an AKP official in as many months.
Turkey’s pro-Kurdish party, the country’s main opposition party and the United States all have criticised the move.
Security sources said a further seven were killed on Wednesday.
President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that Turkey had evidence the mayors had sent support to Kurdish militants and that they should have been stripped of their roles sooner.
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It has decried the dismissals as an “administrative coup”.
