ISTANBUL - Air strikes by 11 Turkish warplanes in northern Iraq on Monday are believed to have killed 45 Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants, the armed forces said in a statement on Tuesday.
The military said the strikes by F-16 and F-4 jets, in the Qandil mountain area where the PKK has its main bases, also destroyed two weapons depots and two Katyusha rocket positions.
Moreover, Sunday's attack, tearing through a crowded transport hub a few hundred metres from the Justice and Interior Ministries, was the second such strike at the administrative heart of the Turkish capital in under a month. No one has claimed responsibility for the latest attack.
However, security officials told Reuters a female member of the outlawed PKK, which has fought a three-decade insurgency for Kurdish autonomy in Turkey's southeast, was one of the suspected perpetrators. A police source said her severed hand had been found 300 metres from the blast site.
Evidence had been obtained that suggested she was born in 1992, was from the eastern city of Kars near the Armenian border, and had joined the militant group in 2013, they said. The second suspect was a male Turkish citizen also with PKK links, a security official said. Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said a woman was "definitely" one of the suicide bombers and the second bomber was male, although his identity has not yet been confirmed. At least 11 people have been detained and 10 more were sought in connection with the attack, he said.
Violence has increased in Turkey's predominantly Kurdish southeast since a 2-1/2 year ceasefire with the PKK collapsed in July. The militants have so far largely focused their strikes on security forces in southeastern towns, many of which have been under curfew. But attacks in Ankara and Istanbul over the last year, and the activity of Islamic State as well as Kurdish fighters, have raised concerns among NATO allies who see Turkey's stability as vital to containing violence in neighbouring Syria and Iraq. President Tayyip Erdogan is also eager to dispel any notion he is struggling to maintain security.