Turkish war planes overnight hit targets of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in seven locations in northern Iraq and also pressed on with strikes against Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants in Syria, the office of the Turkish prime minister said Saturday. "Strikes were carried out on targets of the Daesh (ISIS) terror group in Syria and the PKK terror group in northern Iraq," it said in a statement, saying shelters and warehouses containing PKK weapons were hit in the northern Iraq operation. It listed seven locations in northern Iraq where the strikes had been carried out, including Mount Kandil where the PKK's military leadership is based. In addition to the air raids, Turkish ground forces also carried out artillery strikes against ISIS in Syria and the PKK in northern Iraq, the statement said. Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu convened a meeting of top ministers and security officials early Saturday at around 2:00 am in Ankara to discuss the cross-border operations, it added. "Additional measures were agreed for the fight against terrorism and instructions given to the relevant authorities." The military operations come after a week of violence in Turkey, including a suicide bombing blamed on IS and attacks on Turkish police claimed by the PKK. Separately, Turkish warplanes attacked ISIS targets in Syria for the first time on Friday, joining a U.S.-led coalition that has been bombing ISIS targets in Syria for the past 10 months. Turkey told the United Nations on Friday that it had started conducting air strikes in Syria against ISIS militants because the Syrian government was neither capable or willing to tackle the radical Islamist group. Turkey has faced increasing cross-border violence along its 900-kilometer frontier with Syria, where ISIS militants have taken advantage of a more than four-year long civil war to seize swathes of territory. In a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the U.N. Security Council, Turkey cited Article 51 of the U.N. Charter, which covers an individual or collective right to self-defense against armed attack, as justification for its action. "It is apparent that the regime in Syria is neither capable of nor willing to prevent these threats emanating from its territory which clearly imperil the security of Turkey and safety of its nationals," wrote Turkey's Deputy U.N. Ambassador Levent Eler in the letter, seen by Reuters. "Syria has become a safe haven for (ISIS). This area is used by (ISIS) for training, planning, financing and carrying out attacks across borders," he wrote. Eler said Turkey "initiated necessary and proportionate military actions against (ISIS) in Syria, including in coordination with individual members of the Global Coalition, in order to counter the terrorist threat and to safeguard its territory and citizens." Under Article 51 of the U.N. Charter, the 15-member Security Council must immediately be informed of any action that states take in self-defence against armed attack. After long being a reluctant partner in the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State, Turkey has also approved the use of its air bases by U.S. and coalition aircraft to mount strikes against ISIS. A Syrian government crackdown on a pro-democracy movement in 2011 sparked a civil war. The United Nations has said that some 220,000 people have been killed and an estimated 7.6 million are internally displaced. Another 4 million people have fled Syria.
