JUST a day after Turkey at last went on the attack against Islamic State (IS) jihadists in Syria, it turned its guns on its longstanding foes the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The PKK has fought intermittently for decades to establish Kurdish autonomy in Turkey, but had observed a tentative cease-fire for the past two years while its imprisoned leader, Abdullah Ocalan, negotiated a peace deal with the government. The PKK was the first to break the ceasefire when it killed four Turkish policemen last week. On July 25th Turkish jets retaliated, bombing PKK camps in Iraq. The PKK struck back the following day with a car-bomb attack against a Turkish military convoy in the eastern town of Lice that killed two soldiers, according to the army.

The fighting has put a definitive end to the cease-fire between the government and the PKK. It also complicates Turkey's newfound eagerness to participate in the American-led military effort to destroy IS. While America considers the PKK a terrorist organisation, it supports Kurdish fighters in Syria known as the People’s Defence Units (YPG), who are closely allied with the group. They have begun establishing Kurdish-ruled cantons wherever they liberate territory in Syria. Turkey may have signed on to the American-led military effort to destroy IS, but the attacks show that it is determined to limit the growing power of the Kurds that has resulted from that campaign.