Ankara Blast Echoes Past Attacks in Türkiye

Members of Turkish Police Special Forces secure the area near the Interior Ministry following a bomb attack in Ankara, on October 1, 2023, leaving two police officers injured. (AFP)
Members of Turkish Police Special Forces secure the area near the Interior Ministry following a bomb attack in Ankara, on October 1, 2023, leaving two police officers injured. (AFP)
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Ankara Blast Echoes Past Attacks in Türkiye

Members of Turkish Police Special Forces secure the area near the Interior Ministry following a bomb attack in Ankara, on October 1, 2023, leaving two police officers injured. (AFP)
Members of Turkish Police Special Forces secure the area near the Interior Ministry following a bomb attack in Ankara, on October 1, 2023, leaving two police officers injured. (AFP)

Türkiye’s interior minister said on Sunday that two terrorists carried out a bomb attack in front of the ministry buildings in Ankara, adding one of them died in the explosion and the other was "neutralized" by authorities there.

The bombing, the first to hit Ankara in a number of years, comes almost a year after six people were killed and 81 wounded in an explosion in a busy pedestrian street in central Istanbul on Nov 13, 2022.

Türkiye blamed Kurdish militants for the Istanbul blast, which reminded Turks of a wave of attacks carried out by various militant groups in Turkish cities between mid-2015 and early 2017.

Following are some of those deadly attacks:

Jan 5, 2017 - A Turkish police officer and a courthouse employee were killed by a car bomb in the Aegean coastal city of Izmir while at least 10 people were wounded. Authorities said Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants were behind the attack.

Dec 31, 2016 - ISIS claimed responsibility for a New Year's Day mass shooting in which 39 people were killed after a lone gunman opened fire in a packed Istanbul nightclub.

Dec 17, 2016 - A car bomb killed 13 soldiers and wounded 56 when it tore through a bus carrying off-duty military personnel in the central city of Kayseri. An offshoot of the PKK claimed responsibility for the attack.

Dec 10, 2016 - Twin bombings, one planted in a car and the other strapped to a suicide bomber, killed 44 people, most of them police officers, and wounded more than 150 outside an Istanbul soccer stadium. A PKK offshoot, the Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK), claimed responsibility for the attack.

Aug 26, 2016 - A suicide truck bombing at a police headquarters in Türkiye’s largely Kurdish southeast killed at least 11 and wounded dozens. The PKK claimed responsibility for the attack.

Aug 20, 2016 - A suicide bomber carried out an attack on a wedding party in the southeastern Turkish city of Gaziantep that killed at least 51 people. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the attacker had worked with the ISIS.

June 28, 2016 - A triple suicide bombing and a gun attack killed 45 people and wounded more than 160 people at Istanbul's main airport. Türkiye handed down life sentences to people linked to the perpetrators of the attack, believed to have been involved with ISIS.

May 12, 2016 - Explosives that detonated in a village in southeastern Türkiye killed 16 people, had been intended for use in a suicide bombing in the nearby province of Diyarbakir. Kurdish militants were believed to have been transporting the explosives, security sources have said.

March 19, 2016 - A suicide bomber killed four people in a busy shopping district of Istiklal Street in the heart of Istanbul. Authorities confirmed three Israelis, two of them holding dual US citizenship, and an Iranian citizen died as a result of the blast. Authorities said a Turkish member of the ISIS group was responsible for the bombing.

March 13, 2016 - Thirty-seven people were killed when a bomb-laden car exploded at a crowded transport hub in the heart of the Turkish capital Ankara.

Feb 17, 2016 - Twenty-eight people were killed and dozens wounded in Ankara when a car laden with explosives detonated next to military buses near the armed forces' headquarters, parliament and other government buildings.

Jan 12, 2016 - A suicide bomber killed at least 10 people, most of them German tourists, in Istanbul's historic heart in an attack then authorities blamed on ISIS.

Oct 10, 2015 - Twin bombings in Ankara killed more than 100 people outside the city's main train station. Turkish courts jailed perpetrators, who are believed to be linked to the ISIS, for life.

Sept 8, 2015 - Kurdish militants killed 15 police officers in two bombings in eastern Turkish provinces of Mardin and Igdir.

July 20, 2015 - An ISIS suicide bomber killed more than 30 people, mostly young students, in an attack on the mainly ethnic Kurdish town of Suruc near the Syrian border.



Israel’s Bombs Flatten Swaths of Lebanon Village amid Fears of Wider War

A satellite image shows damage in the Lebanese village of Aita al-Shaab near the Israeli border, following months of ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, Lebanon June 5, 2024. 2024 Planet Labs Inc/Handout via Reuters
A satellite image shows damage in the Lebanese village of Aita al-Shaab near the Israeli border, following months of ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, Lebanon June 5, 2024. 2024 Planet Labs Inc/Handout via Reuters
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Israel’s Bombs Flatten Swaths of Lebanon Village amid Fears of Wider War

A satellite image shows damage in the Lebanese village of Aita al-Shaab near the Israeli border, following months of ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, Lebanon June 5, 2024. 2024 Planet Labs Inc/Handout via Reuters
A satellite image shows damage in the Lebanese village of Aita al-Shaab near the Israeli border, following months of ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, Lebanon June 5, 2024. 2024 Planet Labs Inc/Handout via Reuters

Satellite images showing much of the Lebanese village of Aita al-Shaab in ruins after months of Israeli air strikes offer a glimpse of the scale of damage in one of Hezbollah's main bastions in south Lebanon.

The images from private satellite operator Planet Labs PBC, taken on June 5 and analyzed by Reuters, show at least 64 destroyed sites in Aita al-Shaab. Several of the sites contain more than one building.

Located in southern Lebanon where Hezbollah enjoys strong backing from many Shiites, Aita al-Shaab was a frontline in 2006 when its fighters successfully repelled Israeli attacks during the full-scale, 34-day war.

While the current fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Shiite movement is still relatively contained, it marks their worst confrontation in 18 years, with widespread damage to buildings and farmland in south Lebanon and northern Israel.

The sides have been trading fire since the Gaza war erupted in October. The hostilities have largely depopulated the border zone on both sides, with tens of thousands of people fleeing their homes.

The destruction in Aita al-Shaab is comparable to the damage done in 2006, a dozen people familiar with the damage said, at a time when escalation has prompted growing concern of another all out war between the heavily-armed adversaries.

Reuters does not have satellite images from 2006 to compare the two periods.

Israel says fire from Lebanon has killed 18 soldiers and 10 civilians. Israeli attacks have killed more than 300 Hezbollah fighters and 87 civilians, according to Reuters tallies.

At least 10 of Hezbollah's dead came from Aita al-Shaab, and dozens more from the surrounding area, according to Hezbollah death notices reviewed by Reuters. Six civilians have been killed in the village, a security source said.

The village, just 1 km (0.6 miles) from the border, is among the most heavily bombarded by Israel, Hashem Haidar, the head of the government's regional development agency the Council for South Lebanon told Reuters.

"There is a lot of destruction in the village center, not just the buildings they hit and destroyed, but those around them" which are beyond repair, said Aita al-Shaab mayor Mohamed Srour.

Most of the village's 13,500 residents fled in October, when Israel began striking buildings and woodland nearby, he added.

The bombing campaign has made a swath of the border area in Lebanon "unfit for living," Haidar said.

The Israeli military has said it has hit Hezbollah targets in the Aita al-Shaab area during the conflict.

In response to Reuters questions, Israeli military spokesperson Nir Dinar said Israel was acting in self-defense.

Hezbollah had made the area "unlivable" by hiding in civilian buildings and launching unprovoked attacks that made "ghost towns" of Israeli villages, Dinar said.

"Israel is striking military targets, the fact that they're hiding inside civilian infrastructures is Hezbollah's decision," Dinar said.

The military did not give further details of the nature of its targets in the village. It said Hezbollah was escalating attacks, firing over 4,800 rockets into northern Israel, "killing civilians and displacing tens of thousands."

Hezbollah's media office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Hezbollah has said that displacing so many Israelis has been an accomplishment of its campaign.

'CONTINUING THREAT'

The current conflict began a day after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, when Hezbollah opened fire in solidarity with its Palestinian ally. Hezbollah has said it will stop when the Israeli assault on Gaza ends.

Aita al-Shaab is perched on a hilltop looking into Israel and is one of many Shiite villages experts say are Hezbollah's first line of defense against Israel.

The 2006 war started when Hezbollah fighters infiltrated Israel from an area near Aita al-Shaab, capturing two Israeli soldiers.

A source familiar with Hezbollah's operations said the village had played a strategic role in 2006 and would do so again in any new war. The source did not give more details of the group's activities there.

Hezbollah fighters held out in the village for the entire 2006 war. An Israeli-government appointed inquiry found that Israeli forces failed to capture it as ordered, despite encircling the village and dealing a serious blow to Hezbollah. Anti-tank missiles were still being fired from the village five days before the war ended, it said.

Seth G. Jones, senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said the area was militarily important in several ways, allowing Hezbollah to fire its shorter-range rockets into Israel.

"If there was a ground incursion, these would be frontline locations for Hezbollah to defend, or to try to attrite" Israeli forces, he said.

Hezbollah, far stronger than in 2006, has announced attacks on targets directly across the border from Aita al-Shaab during the current hostilities, including in the Israeli village of Shtula 1.9 km (1.18 miles) away and nearby areas.

Satellite images of Shtula and nearby Israeli villages taken on June 5 do not show visible damage to buildings. Israel's Defense Ministry said 60 homes in Shutla had been damaged including 11 severely damaged, according to a May report by newspaper Calcalist. The ministry did not respond to Reuters requests for data.

Throughout northern Israel, around 2,000 buildings have been damaged, the country's tax authority said. Across the border, some 2,700 homes have been completely destroyed and 22,000 more damaged, significantly below the 2006 conflict, the Council for South Lebanon said, though these numbers were preliminary.

Fires sparked by the fighting have affected hundreds of hectares of farmland and forest either side of the border, authorities said.

HEAVY ORDNANCE

Andreas Krieg of King's College in London said the structural damage in Aita al-Shaab was in keeping with wide-impact-area ordnance dropped by fighter jets or drones. Images of strikes indicated bombs of up to 2,000 lbs (900 kg) had been dropped, he said.

Hezbollah, which frequently announces its own strikes, has occasionally used the short-range Burkan, with a warhead of up to 500 kgs (1,100 pounds). Many of the attacks it has announced have used weapons with far smaller warheads, such as guided anti-tank rockets that typically carry warheads of less than 10 kg.

"Hezbollah does have much ... heavier warheads on their ballistic missiles that have not been used yet," Krieg said.

Israel's military and Hezbollah did not respond to questions about ordnance.

Hezbollah's goal, Krieg said, was to drive out Israeli civilians.

"For that, Hezbollah doesn't need to cause massive structural damage to civilian areas or civilian buildings."