Turkey: Suspect who drove bomb-rigged vehicle caught

HATAY, Turkey

Security forces in southern Turkey caught a suspected terrorist YPG/PKK member who delivered a vehicle packed with bombs set to explode, the provincial governorship said Tuesday.

The governorship of Hatay, a Turkish province with a long border with Syria, made the announcement.

Earlier Tuesday, at least 40 civilians, including 11 children, were killed in the YPG/PKK terrorist attack in northwestern Syria, a region near Turkey’s border, according to Turkey's Defense Ministry.

At least 47 others were also wounded in the attack in the Afrin city center carried out using a bomb-rigged fuel tanker.

The ministry said the injured are being treated in hospitals in Syria's Afrin and Turkey's Hatay provinces.

Since 2016, Turkey has launched a trio of successful anti-terrorist operations across its border in northern Syria to prevent the formation of a terror corridor and enable peaceful settlement of locals: Euphrates Shield (2016), Olive Branch (2018) and Peace Spring (2019).

In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US and EU -- has been responsible for the deaths of 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants. The YPG is the PKK’s Syrian offshoot.

*Writing by Erdogan Cagatay Zontur