Turkey launches airstrikes against Kurdish militants in Iraq and Syria after 9 soldiers were killed

By ANDREW WILKS
Associated Press

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey carried out airstrikes targeting Kurdish militants in neighboring Iraq and Syria on Saturday, the Turkish Defense Ministry said. This comes a day after an attack on a Turkish military base in Iraq killed nine Turkish soldiers. The defense ministry said fighter jets destroyed caves, bunkers, shelters and oil facilities and “many” militants were “neutralized” in the strikes. On Friday night, attackers attempted to infiltrate a military base in northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region, leaving nine soldiers and 15 militants dead. Turkey often launches strikes against targets in Syria and Iraq it believes to be affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, a banned Kurdish separatist group that has waged insurgency against Turkey since the 1980s.