Turkey struck several targets in Syria on Tuesday after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued new threats to launch a ground operation "soon" against Kurdish fighters despite calls for de-escalation from Washington and Moscow. Ankara launched a series of air strikes in Operation Claw-Sword on Sunday -- hitting dozens of Kurdish targets across Iraq and Syria -- and announcing that its military was once again "on top of the terrorists". The air raids followed a bombing in Istanbul on Sunday that killed six people and wounded 81. Turkey blamed the attack on the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is blacklisted as a terror group by the European Union and the United States.

The Turkish leader has threatened a new military operation into northern Syria since May and upped those threats in the wake of this month s attack. "We have been on top of terrorists for a few days with our planes, cannons and drones," Erdogan told a ceremony in the Black Sea province of Artvin. "God willing, we will root out all of them soon with our tanks, artillery and soldiers." The PKK, which has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984, denied any role in the November 13 bombing -- the deadliest in five years after a spate of attacks in Turkey between 2015 and 2017.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-INP