TURKEY’S air force hit Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq yesterday, hours after a suicide car bombing in the capital killed 37 people and heightened tensions with the militants.

    Nine F-16s and two F-4 jets raided 18 positions of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, in northern Iraq, including the Qandil mountains where the group’s leadership is based, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

    Police, meanwhile, carried out raids in the southern city of Adana, detaining suspected 38 suspected PKK rebels, the agency reported. Fifteen suspected Kurdish militants were also detained in Istanbul, Anadolu said.

    Health Minister Mehmet Muezzinoglu said three more people died overnight from wounds suffered in the Sunday night’s suicide attack that targeted buses and people waiting at bus stops in the heart of Ankara. Around 125 people were wounded in the blast, with 71 people still hospitalized. Of those, 15 were in serious condition.

    China condemned the attack, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said yesterday.

    “China opposes all forms of terrorism and hopes all countries to enhance coordination to fight terrorism,” Lu said.

    The United States condemned the attack, saying in a White House National Security Council statement: “This horrific act is only the most recent of many terrorist attacks perpetrated against the Turkish people. The United States stands together with Turkey, a NATO ally and valued partner, as we confront the scourge of terrorism.”

    World leaders joined in condemning the bombing. British Prime Minister David Cameron said he was “appalled,” while French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault described it as a “cowardly attack.” Russian President Vladimir Putin described it as “inhuman,” his spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agencies.

    A senior government official said that authorities believe the attack was carried out by two bombers — one of them a woman — and was the work of Kurdish militants.

    It was the second deadly attack blamed on Kurdish militants in the capital in the past month and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to bring “terrorism to its knees.”

    On Feb. 17, a suicide car-bombing in the capital targeted buses carrying military personnel, killing 29 people. A Kurdish militant group, which is an offshoot of the PKK, claimed responsibility.

    Turkey is grappling with a host of issues, including renewed fighting with Kurdish rebels, tensions with a Syrian Kurdish militia group, which is affiliated with the PKK, threats from the Islamic State group and a Syrian refugee crisis.

    The PKK has been designated a terror organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the European Union. A fragile peace process between the PKK and the Turkish state collapsed in July, reigniting a battle that has cost tens of thousands of lives since 1984.

    (SD-Agencies)