ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey plans to pursue targets in northern Syria after it completes a cross-border operation against outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in Iraq, a senior official said on Tuesday, after a deadly weekend bomb in Istanbul.
The government has blamed Kurdish militants for the blast on Istanbul’s Istiklal Avenue on Sunday that killed six people and injured more than 80.
Threats posed by Kurdish militants or Islamic State on Turkey are unacceptable, the official said, adding Ankara will clear threats along its southern border “one way or another.”
Turkey has conducted three incursions in northern Syria against the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, which it says is a wing of the PKK. The PKK is deemed a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.
(Reporting by Orhan Coskun; Writing by Ali Kucukgocmen; Editing by Jonathan Spicer)
