ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - In a sign of further turbulence for the U.S. led-coalition against the Islamic State group, Turkish warplanes have struck suspected Kurdish rebel positions in southeastern Turkey, media reports said Tuesday.
It was the first major airstrikes against the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, since peace talks began two years ago to end a 30-year insurgency in Turkey. It added to tensions between the key U.S. coalition partner and PKK, a militant group listed as a terrorist organization by the U.S. that is also among the fiercest opponents of the Islamic State group.
The return to violence between the two parties suggests that Turkey's focus may not be on the Islamic State group, even as it negotiates its role with the U.S. and NATO allies fighting the extremists. Turkey has provoked frustration among allies, by saying it won't join the fight against the Islamic State militants unless the U.S.-led coalition also targets Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime.
The attack follows a week of violence in Turkey spawned by the Islamic State militants' advance on the Syrian town of Kobani.
More than 30 people were killed last week as Kurds, angered at what they said was a Turkish impediment to efforts to defend Kobani, clashed with police and supporters of an Islamist group in cities across Turkey. Turkish authorities said at least two police officers were killed in what was widely interpreted in Turkey as a PKK assassination attempt on a police chief.
Kurds in Turkey accuse the government of standing idly by while Syrian Kurds are being slaughtered in the besieged town across the border.
Meanwhile, the U.S.-led coalition on Tuesday launched 22 airstrikes on Islamic State group positions in Syria, with all but one targeting positions in and around Kobani, the U.S. Defense Department said.
"Over the past night there have been very intense airstrikes by the coalition that targeted several Daesh positions in and near Kobani," said Idriss Nassan, deputy head of Kobani's foreign relations committee, using an Arabic acronym to refer to the Islamic State group.
One of the airstrikes targeted the Tel Shair hill that overlooks parts of Kobani, Nassan said. He added that Kurdish fighters later captured the hill and brought down the black flag of the Islamic State group. The extremist group still controls more than a third of the predominantly Kurdish town.
An Associated Press journalist on the Turkish side of the border confirmed that the Islamic State flag was not flying Tuesday afternoon on the hill.
The fate of Kobani is being watched closely in Turkey, where Kurdish leaders, including jailed PKK chief Abdullah Ocalan, have warned that the fall of Kobani would end the peace process. Meanwhile, PKK commander Cemal Bayik has been quoted in Turkish media as saying that some PKK fighters who had withdrawn from Turkish territory as part of the peace efforts have now returned to Turkey.