ISTANBUL: Kurdish militants have claimed responsibility for last week’s car bombing attack that killed a policeman and a courthouse employee in western Turkey.
The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons, or TAK, says that two members of its “revenge team” died in the Jan. 5 Izmir attack, according to a news agency close to Kurdish militants.
Firat News Agency, quoting a statement by the group Wednesday, identified the attackers as “comrades” Mustafa Coban and Enes Yildirim, aged 29 and 25 respectively.
TAK threatened “new acts of revenge” against the “fascist” Turkish state, which is fighting Kurdish rebels in the southeast.
The two assailants were shot dead after they detonated an explosives-laden vehicle at a roadblock and engaged in a shootout with police.
Turkish authorities consider TAK to be an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.
The PKK has waged a decades-long insurgency and is considered a terror organization by Turkey and its allies, including the US
TAK has claimed multiple attacks in the past year, including two bombings that killed 45 people near a soccer stadium in Istanbul last month.
Kurdish militants claim car bomb attack in Turkey’s Izmir
Kurdish militants claim car bomb attack in Turkey’s Izmir
Israel military says Iran fires new wave of missiles at country
- Israeli broadcaster Channel 12 reported several injuries from the Iranian strikes near Tel Aviv
JERUSALEM: Israel’s military said Wednesday that it detected missiles heading toward the country from Iran and had activated air defenses, as it pressed a “wave” of strikes against Iran and Lebanon.
“A short while ago, the IDF identified missiles launched from Iran toward the territory of the State of Israel. Defensive systems are operating to intercept the threat,” the military said on its official Telegram account.
AFP journalists heard air raid sirens sounding in Jerusalem and the sound of explosions in the distance.
A short time later, Israel’s military said it was permitted to leave shelters.
Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency services reported no immediate injuries following the missile fire, but said its teams were treating “a small number of people who were injured on their way to protected areas.”
Israeli broadcaster Channel 12 reported several injuries from the Iranian strikes near Tel Aviv.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they targeted a satellite communications center in Haifa, along with military bases in Israel, and US targets elsewhere in the Middle East including Iraqi Kurdistan and the US Fifth Fleet naval base in Bahrain.
“We will continue our sustained attacks with purpose and power, and in this war, we contemplate nothing but the enemy’s complete surrender,” the Guards said on their website Sepah News.
