TURKEY bombed a suspected Kurdish militant target in northern Iraq on Sunday in retaliation for a suicide attack on a government building in the capital, the Turkish Defence Ministry said yesterday.

Some 20 PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) targets — caves, shelters and depots — were destroyed in the latest aerial operation, the ministry said, adding that a large number of PKK operatives were “neutralised” in the strikes.

Local sources said civilian settlement areas were also hit by fighter jets.

On Sunday, a suicide bomber detonated an explosive device near an entrance to the Interior Ministry in Ankara, wounding two police officers. A second assailant was killed in a shootout with police.

A PKK-affiliated militia, the HPG (people’s defence forces) claimed responsibility for the attack, according to a news agency close to the rebel group.

It happened hours before Turkey’s parliament reopened after its three-month summer recess with an address by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.