Ankara, Turkey: Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish President 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, according to Anadolu Agency.
Erdogan, while talking to the reporters after returning from Qatar to Turkey, 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).”
Erdogan’s outburst follows Turkish 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,” Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktayas was quoted as saying by CNN on Sunday.
Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said that CCTV footage shows a woman sitting on a bench for more than 40 minutes and then getting up one or two minutes before the explosion, leaving a bag or plastic bag behind. He further informed that earlier, a woman, who was suspected of being involved in the attack, was kept in custody.
(With agency inputs)
from World – Latest News, Breaking News, LIVE News, Top News Headlines, Viral Video, Cricket LIVE, Sports, Entertainment, Business, Health, Lifestyle and Utility News | India.Com https://ift.tt/PzOSN5U
