Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that two of the perpetrators of the terrorist attack on the Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) aerospace plant in Ankara entered Turkey from Syria. He said this on board a plane on his way back from the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, AFP reports.
“We have found out that this terrorist attack was organised as an infiltration from Syria,” Erdogan said, confirming the information published by the Turkish media on Friday.
After the attack, Turkish forces carried out large-scale operations, including airstrikes on targets associated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in northern Iraq and Syria. “Our security forces immediately intervened and neutralised a terrorist who was among the perpetrators of the attack,” Erdogan added.
Turkish Interior Minister Ali Erlikaya said that two of the attackers, including a woman, were identified as members of the PKK, an organisation that is fighting Ankara. One of the attackers detonated the explosives after being wounded by Turkish police.
The attack killed five people, including the attackers themselves. Another 22 people were injured.
Turkey’s Ministry of Defence confirmed that air strikes on Thursday evening targeted targets associated with the PKK in northern Iraq. Erdogan stressed that Turkey is ready to eliminate the terrorist threat near its borders: “If the source of the threat is in Syria, we will take the necessary measures, as we have done before,” the president said.
