PKK Claims Ankara Attack, Erdogan Says Perpetrators Infiltrated from Syria

Emergency and security teams are deployed outside of Turkish Aerospace Industries Inc. at the outskirts of Ankara, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (Yavuz Ozden/Dia Photo via AP)
Emergency and security teams are deployed outside of Turkish Aerospace Industries Inc. at the outskirts of Ankara, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (Yavuz Ozden/Dia Photo via AP)
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PKK Claims Ankara Attack, Erdogan Says Perpetrators Infiltrated from Syria

Emergency and security teams are deployed outside of Turkish Aerospace Industries Inc. at the outskirts of Ankara, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (Yavuz Ozden/Dia Photo via AP)
Emergency and security teams are deployed outside of Turkish Aerospace Industries Inc. at the outskirts of Ankara, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (Yavuz Ozden/Dia Photo via AP)

The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) on Friday claimed responsibility for this week's attack on Turkish defense company TUSAS that killed five people in Ankara, it said in a statement.

Two assailants - a man and a woman - carried out Wednesday's assault with automatic rifles and explosives on the headquarters of Turkish Aerospace Industries (TUSAS) in Ankara. Twenty-two people were also wounded.

Both attackers were killed. Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said later that they were confirmed to be PKK members.

The perpetrators of the attack infiltrated Türkiye from Syria, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was cited as saying by broadcaster NTV and others on Friday.

Speaking to reporters on a flight back from Russia's Kazan, where he attended the BRICS summit, Erdogan vowed to eradicate terrorism at its source in Syria, adding that Türkiye would continue its battle against militants until the end.

Türkiye carried out airstrikes against Kurdish militants in northern Iraq overnight, hitting dozens of targets for the second night in a row, the Defense Ministry said on Friday.

The operation followed a security meeting that Erdogan chaired with key ministers and the armed forces and intelligence agency chiefs in Istanbul on Thursday evening.

Türkiye hit 34 PKK targets in Hakurk, Gara, Qandil and Sinjar in northern Iraq, destroying shelters, warehouses and other facilities, and "neutralizing" a large number of militants, the ministry said.

Security sources said separately that Türkiye's National Intelligence Organization (MIT) had hit a total of 120 PKK targets in Iraq and Syria since the attack in Ankara.



DHL Cargo Plane Crashes into a House in Lithuania, Killing at Least 1

A Lithuanian rescuer walks past the wreckage of a cargo plane following its crash near the Vilnius International Airport in Vilnius on November 25, 2024. (Photo by Petras MALUKAS / AFP)
A Lithuanian rescuer walks past the wreckage of a cargo plane following its crash near the Vilnius International Airport in Vilnius on November 25, 2024. (Photo by Petras MALUKAS / AFP)
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DHL Cargo Plane Crashes into a House in Lithuania, Killing at Least 1

A Lithuanian rescuer walks past the wreckage of a cargo plane following its crash near the Vilnius International Airport in Vilnius on November 25, 2024. (Photo by Petras MALUKAS / AFP)
A Lithuanian rescuer walks past the wreckage of a cargo plane following its crash near the Vilnius International Airport in Vilnius on November 25, 2024. (Photo by Petras MALUKAS / AFP)

A DHL cargo plane crashed into a house Monday morning near Lithuania's capital, killing at least one person.
The head of the country's police said the plane crashed shortly before landing at Vilnius airport.
“It fell a few kilometers before the airport, it just skidded for a few hundred meters, its debris somewhat caught a residential house," said Police Commissioner-General Renatas Požėla. "Residential infrastructure around the house was on fire, and the house was slightly damaged, but we managed to evacuate people.”
Lithuanian’s public broadcaster LRT, quoting an emergency official, said two people had been taken to the hospital after the crash, and one was later pronounced dead.
The Lithuanian airport authority identified the aircraft as a DHL cargo plane arriving from Leipzig, Germany. It posted on the social platform X that city services including a fire truck were on site.
Flight-tracking data from FlightRadar24, analyzed by The Associated Press, showed the aircraft made a turn to the north of the airport, lining up for landing, before crashing a little more than 1.5 kilometers (1 mile) short of the runway.
Authorities did not immediately offer a cause for the crash, which happened just before 5:30 a.m local time. Weather at the airport was around freezing temperature, with clouds before sunrise and winds around 30 kph (18 mph).
DHL Group, headquartered in Bonn, Germany, did not immediately return a call for comment.
The DHL aircraft was operated by Swiftair, a Madrid-based contractor. The carrier could not be immediately reached.
The Boeing 737 was 31 years old, which is considered by experts to be an older airframe, though that’s not unusual for cargo flights.