‘Terrorist’ Attack on Turkish Aerospace Company Leaves 5 Dead

Turkey’s interior minister said it was “most probably” the Kurdistan Worker’s Party that carried out the assault on the sprawling Turkish Aerospace Industries complex near Ankara.

Attackers armed with explosives and rifles struck the headquarters of Turkey’s state-run aerospace company near the capital, Ankara, on Wednesday, in what Turkish officials called a “terrorist” assault.

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya told reporters that five people had been killed and 22 others injured in the attack, which he said had “most probably” been carried out by the outlawed Kurdistan Worker's Party, or P.K.K.

Two assailants — a man and a woman — were also killed, he said.

Images and videos shared on social media and broadcast on Turkish news networks showed explosions and gunfire at the sprawling complex of Turkish Aerospace Industries. A man and a woman were seen rushing into a building with backpacks and assault rifles. Special Forces were deployed, and the police sealed off the area before the government limited local news coverage to official statements.

Selim Cirpanoglu, the mayor of the district where the attack took place, told Turkish news media that hostages had been taken in a cafeteria in the compound. Late Wednesday, it was not clear how or whether that issue had been resolved.

Speaking to reporters near the site, Defense Minister Yasar Guler also suggested that the P.K.K. had been behind the assault.

“We inflict the necessary punishment on those ignoble P.K.K. members, but they never wisen up,” Mr. Guler said.

Later, Turkey launched airstrikes against P.K.K. targets in northern Iraq and Syria, Reuters reported, citing a statement from the Turkish Defense Ministry. About 32 targets were destroyed, Turkish news outlets reported.

The P.K.K. has been seeking Kurdish autonomy through a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state that has left tens of thousands of people dead. Turkey and its Western allies consider the P.K.K. a terrorist organization.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack on Wednesday, but Turkey has faced similar assaults in recent years from Kurdish separatists, radical leftists and jihadists from the Islamic State.

One video from the scene that was shown on Turkish television networks before the broadcast restrictions showed gray smoke from what appeared to be an explosion and a man who appeared to be an attacker running with an assault rifle. Images from surveillance cameras inside a building showed two attackers near the entrance to a building and a body lying on the pavement outside.

NetBlocks, a group that tracks internet outages, said that major social media platforms, including X, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and TikTok, had been restricted in Turkey.

Turkish Aerospace Industries was founded to decrease Turkey’s dependence on foreign defense companies and is a major employer that produces parts for airplanes, helicopters, drones and other technologies.

The attack came a day after one of the closest political allies of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said during a televised address to Parliament that Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned head of the P.K.K., could be released if he announced the end of his group’s insurgency.

Mr. Ocalan is serving a life sentence in an island prison near Istanbul. The surprising offer of a release suggested the possibility of new movement in long-dormant peace talks between Turkey and the P.K.K.

The Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party, Turkey’s main pro-Kurdish political party, condemned the attack and suggested that it could have been launched by people seeking to prevent talks.

“We find it noteworthy that such an attack happened in these days when Turkish society is talking about a solution and the possibility of dialogue emerged,” the party said in a statement on social media.

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