Erdoğan vows to crush heads of YPG/PKK terrorists in Syria

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Wednesday vowed to expand military operations against YPG/PKK militants in Syria, two days after the Turkish military started an offensive targeting the bloody-minded PKK terror group in Iraq's north.

"Sooner or later, we will also crush the head of the terrorist group preparing to grow ... in parts of Syria," Erdoğan said in Ankara, referring to the People's Defence Units (YPG) which is the Syrian branch of the PKK terrorist organization.

"God willing, soon there will be no place called Qandil," Erdoğan told his ruling party members in parliament, referring to the Qandil mountains in northern Iraq where the outlawed PKK is headquartered.

Turkey considers the PKK and YPG both linked terrorist groups and an existential threat to its national security.

Ankara often targets the PKK in Iraq and inside Turkey and controls parts of northern Syria along its border following military operations against the YPG and US and Russian-brokered ceasefires.

On Monday, Turkey started another operation targeting the PKK in northern Iraq, the first large offensive since February when jets and artillery hit several different militant locations in northern Syria and Iraq.

Erdoğan thanked the Iraqi government for coordinating the operation with Turkey but hinted at new military operations against the PKK and also the YPG in Syria.

"Unfortunately, no matter what we do inside [the country], we could not completely root out the terrorists who gathered outside our border. The mosquitoes bred constantly because the swamp did not dry out," Erdoğan added.

The Turkish president's remarks came hours after a roadside blast killed one civil servant and injured at least four others in the north-western the city of Bursa, some 150 kilometres to the south-west of Istanbul.

Erdoğan said it was a terrorist attack, without naming any group.

One prison guard was killed and another was critically wounded after the bus carrying them was hit when a bomb went off, Bursa Governor Yakup Canbolat told reporters.

It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the attack.

The authorities assess that a remote-control device was used to detonate it as the bus was passing, Canbolat said.

Some residential buildings in the neighbourhood were damaged, but there were no civilian casualties, the governor added.

Authorities had blamed similar attacks in the past on PKK.

The PKK is viewed as a terrorist group by Turkey, the European Union and the United States. It has waged a decades-long armed campaign against the Turkish state.