The SDF denies links to the Ankara aerospace company attack

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Mazloum Abdi, the commander-in-chief of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), has denied any connection to Wednesday’s attack on a Turkish aerospace facility in Ankara.

“Our forces have nothing to do with these attacks and the attackers did not pass through Syrian territory,” Abdi said in a video message on Saturday.

Turkish Aerospace Industries Inc. facility. (TAI) in the Kahramankazan district of northern Ankara was attacked by two assailants on Wednesday. Five people were killed and 22 were injured.

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) claimed responsibility, saying the attack “was carried out by an independent team of the Immortal Battalion”.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed the attackers came from Syria. “We learned that this terrorist attack developed as an infiltration movement from Syria,” he told reporters on Friday as he returned from the BRICS Summit in Russia.

Abdi said that his forces are not crossing the border, that the SDF has decided “not to conduct operations in Turkish territory and in northern Kurdistan (southeastern Turkey). Our military operations are limited to Syrian territories only.”

Late Wednesday, Turkey began a wave of strikes against suspected PKK targets in the Kurdistan region and Syria. Turkey considers the SDF an affiliate of the PKK.

The strikes in Syria continued for at least two days.

“Last night, Turkish warplanes targeted the vicinity of the Qamishli power plant, as well as targeting a construction materials facility twice with a drone,” a statement from local Kurdish security forces (Asayish) said on Saturday.

Abdi said the strikes killed 17 people in northeastern Syria (Rojava) and that “only two of them were soldiers.”

He said the SDF favors dialogue to resolve its problems with Turkey, but that they may be forced to escalate in response.

“These attacks and their continuation harm and endanger our dialogue efforts. If the attacks continue in this persistent fashion, we will be forced to strengthen our responses more than before,” he said.

The increase in violence comes amid hopes of a renewed push for peace between the Turkish state and the PKK, which began earlier this month with Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli proposing that jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan address the Turkish parliament and declare dissolution. of his armed group.

In a further step, the government allowed Ocalan to meet his family, ending more than four years of isolation. After the meeting, Ocalan’s nephew and pro-Kurdish People’s Democracy and Equality Party (DEM Party) parliamentarian Omer Ocalan shared a message from his uncle that he can turn the violence into a political process.

On Friday, Erdogan said Turkey would continue to fight terrorism.