Turkiye is reeling from an attack on the headquarters of its national Aerospace company, Tusas, which saw 5 people killed and several wounded as Erdoğan was visiting Russia for a BRICS Summit.
Tusas manufactures Kaan, the country's first combat aircraft, and is one of Turkey's most important defense and aviation companies.
The Ankara attack was reminiscent of the Mehran Base attack perpetrated by well-trained terrorists in May 2011, where 15 militants stormed the PNS Mehran Naval Air Base and killed 16 officers, wounding 18 others.
Several Pakistani aircraft were set on fire in the attack, which exposed the security of the adjoining Faisal Air Force Base in Karachi as well.
The gun battle during the Mehran attack lasted for 16 hours, as two naval P3C Orion aircraft were destroyed.
The Ankara attack comes as Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Turkey conduct the Indus Shield 2024 aerial exercises.
Turkey has sent a contingent of F-16s to the exercises, while Pakistan has deployed J-10C. Egypt and Saudi Arabia are attending with the Mirage 2000 and Tornado fighter jets, respectively.
The aim of the Indian Shield exercises is to bolster military cooperation between the countries and ensure preparedness to meet various challenges and any emergent threats in the region.
NATO, of which Turkey is an important member, has condemned the attack, along with the British Prime Minister. At the same time, Erdoğan denounced the terrorist incident in Kazan, where he talked with Putin and other world leaders.
Turkey laid the blame for the attacks on the banned Kurdish PKK party, which saw armed terrorists storming Tusas HQ using explosives and assault weapons.
The attacks come at a time when Israel is waging a war of annihilation on HAMAS and Hezbollah, and as Yemen is coming under increasing attacks from Israel, the US, and the UK, even while strife threatens to tear Sudan apart.
At the same time, hundreds of thousands of Lebanese have fled to Syria to escape the Israeli onslaught, even as Israel pounds Hezbollah positions in Syria in aerial strikes.
Concurrently, Israel is also planning to attack Iran, after the latter fired a barrage of missiles in retaliation for the killings of Ismail Haniyeh and Syed Hasan Nasrallah.
In response to the Ankara attack, Turkey launched airstrikes on PKK positions in Syria and Northern Iraq late on Wednesday.
Security agencies of Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt, and Turkey will be on high alert, anticipating further such attacks on the infrastructure and personnel of their defense Fraternity.
Instead of these facts, it will be troubling for all these nations that similarities exist between an attack on PNS Mehran and Ankara - a NATO member protected under NATO treaties.
This might give Pakistani investigators some clues into terrorist incidents in the country, pointing the finger at Islamic State militants, who have also been active in Turkey and who recently targetted Russia in an opera attack in Moscow.
However, with several aircraft destroyed, including the backbone of Naval Intelligence and Surveillance, the Orion P3C aircraft, the movements, and training of militants in that particular mission left the intelligence community in Pakistan questioning whether these militants were trained by the Special Services of some foreign country, even as 3 Pakistani commandos were killed in the attack.
At the same time, Pakistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey will be anticipating a further deterioration of the security situation in their regions; in Afghanistan, in the Red Sea, and at home.
A resurgent Islamic State will be disastrous news for Syria, with Hezbollah already in shambles following crippling blows to its command and control structure.
There is every reason to expect that Israel will press home its advantage and carry the war into Syria, while the US has never shown its opposition to the government of Bashar Al Assad.
At the same time, Egypt will be nervously looking on as it would fear trouble from Sudan spilling across its borders and a repeat flaring up of the Arab Spring that saw an unprecedented spate of terror attacks in Egypt, resulting in the crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.
For its part, Pakistan will be keen to gauge more information from both Turkey and Russia following the Ankara and Moscow attacks, as it zeroes in on the forces behind the PNS attack.
It is also pertinent to note that the PNS Mehran attack was preceded by a similar mission that aimed to hijack a naval warship a few months later.
The US, at the time, had commented that the hijacked ship was to be used to target an aircraft carrier operating in the Arabian Sea.
Before the PNS Mehran attack, the GHQ had come under attack from well-trained and well-armed militants, as the Pakistan COAS, Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, and his high command were inside the premises.
Therefore, there is every reason to expect that Pakistani investigators will be on their toes, advising friendly countries from bitter experience and looking to crack the mystery of its own foes open during their interactions with Moscow and Turkey.
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