Turkey carries out airstrikes in Iraq after deadly Ankara bombing

9 F-16s and 2 F-4 jets raided 18 positions of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK

Turkey’s state-run news agency says the military has carried out airstrikes against Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq hours after a deadly bombing in the Turkish capital.

The Anadolu Agency says nine F-16s and two F-4 jets raided 18 positions of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, in the northern Iraq, including in the Qandil mountains where the group’s leadership is based.  Targets hits consisted of ammunition depots, bunkers and shelters.

On Sunday, at least 37 people were killed and another 125 injured after an explosion ripped through the capital Ankara. Seventy-one people were still being treated in hospital, 15 of which were in serious condition. The blast occurred near the central Guven Park, close to a major transportation hub.

Ankara residents rushed to hospitals and morgues for news of missing loved ones.

Ridvan Baskiran said he went to several hospitals searching for his cousin Kubra Pekgenc who was working at a mall near the blast scene.

“We kept trying to call her but it was ringing busy,” Baskiran said. “We went around from hospital to hospital and we finally found her. She had brain surgery.”

Police raids and dozens of arrests

Police carried out raids Monday in the southern city of Adana, detaining suspected PKK rebels, Anadolu reported. The private Dogan news agency said at least 36 people were taken into custody. Fifteen suspected Kurdish militants were also detained in Istanbul, Anadolu said.

Health Minister Mehmet Muezzinoglu said three more people died overnight from wounds suffered in the Sunday night attack that targeted buses and people waiting at bus stops at the heart of Ankara.

Police on Monday blocked the boulevard where the attack occurred, as forensic teams scoured the road — which is Ankara’s main artery — for more clues.

Ankara bomber may have been young woman

A female member of the outlawed PKK was one of two suspected perpetrators the bombing, security officials said on Monday.

The attack was the second such bombing in the administrative heart of the city in under a month.

Evidence has been obtained that one of the bombers was a female member of the PKK who joined the militant group in 2013, the security officials told Reuters.

She was born in 1992 and is from the eastern Turkish city of Kars, they said.

The government has said it expects to officially identify the organization behind the attack later on Monday.

In its armed campaign in Turkey, the PKK has historically struck directly at the security forces and says it does not target civilians. A direct claim of responsibility for Sunday’s bombing would indicate a major tactical shift.

The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK) claimed responsibility for the previous car bombing, just a few blocks away, on Feb. 17. TAK says it has split from the PKK, although experts who study Kurdish militants say the two organizations are affiliated.

Curfew in southeastern Turkey

Turkey declared a round-the-clock curfew in the southeastern town of Sirnak on Monday in order to carry out operations against Kurdish militants in the area, the provincial governor’s office said in a statement. It said the curfew will go into effect at 11 p.m. local time (5 p.m. ET) on Monday.

Security forces have been carrying out operations in the mainly Kurdish southeast, where months of conflict have devastated much of the region.

Turkey has been imposing curfews in several flashpoints in the southeast since August to root out militants linked to the PKK, who had set up barricades, dug trenches and planted explosives. The military operations have raised concerns over human rights violations and scores of civilian deaths. Tens of thousands of people have also been displaced by the fighting.

Last week, Turkey’s military ended a three-month operation against the militants in the historic Sur district of Diyarbakir — the largest city in the country’s mostly Kurdish southeast. On Sunday, authorities eased the curfew in some streets and one neighbourhood of Sur, but the siege over the district’s main areas was still in place.

The PKK has been designated a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the European Union. A fragile peace process between the PKK and the Turkish state collapsed in July, reigniting a battle that has cost tens of thousands of lives since 1984.