Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet
Davutoglu, flanked by Chief of Staff General Hulusi Akar (L), talks to
journalists at the Army headquarters in Ankara, Turkey February 18, 2016
in this handout photo provided by the Prime Minister's Press Office.
ANKARA/ISTANBUL - Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu blamed a
Syrian Kurdish militia fighter working with Kurdish militants inside
Turkey for a suicide car bombing that killed 28 people in the capital
Ankara, and he vowed retaliation in both Syria and Iraq.
A car laden with explosives detonated next to military buses as they
waited at traffic lights near Turkey's armed forces' headquarters,
parliament and government buildings in the administrative heart of
Ankara late on Wednesday.
Davutoglu said the attack was clear evidence that the YPG, a Syrian
Kurdish militia that has been supported by the United States in the
fight against Islamic State in northern Syria, was a terrorist
organisation and that Turkey, a NATO member, expected cooperation from
its allies in combating the group.
Within hours, Turkish warplanes bombed bases in northern Iraq of the
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged a three-decade insurgency
against the Turkish state and which Davutoglu accused of collaborating
in the car bombing.
Turkey's armed forces also shelled YPG positions in northern Syria on
Thursday, a security source said. Davutoglu said the artillery fire
would continue and promised that those responsible for the Ankara attack
would "pay the price".
"Yesterday's attack was directly targeting Turkey and the perpetrator
is the YPG and the divisive terrorist organization PKK. All necessary
measures will be taken against them," Davutoglu said in a televised
speech.
President Tayyip Erdogan also said initial findings suggested the
Syrian Kurdish militia and the PKK were behind the bombing and said that
14 people had been detained.
The political arm of the YPG, denied involvement in the bombing,
while a senior member of the PKK said he did not know who was
responsible.
The attack was the latest in a series of bombings in the past year mostly blamed on Islamic State militants.
Turkey is getting dragged ever deeper into the war in neighbouring
Syria and is trying to contain some of the fiercest violence in decades
in its predominantly Kurdish southeast.
The YPG militia, regarded by Ankara as a hostile insurgent force
deeply linked to the PKK, has taken advantage in recent weeks of a major
Syrian army offensive around the northern city of Aleppo, to seize
ground from Syrian rebels near the Turkish border.
That has alarmed Turkey, which fears the advances will stoke Kurdish
separatist ambitions at home. It has been bombarding YPG positions in an
effort to stop them taking the town of Azaz, the last stronghold of
Turkish-backed Syrian rebels north of Aleppo before the Turkish
frontier.
Hundreds of Syrian rebels with weapons and vehicles have re-entered
Syria from Turkey over the last week to reinforce insurgents fending off
the Kurdish-led assault on Azaz, rebel sources said on Thursday.
Saturday, 20 February 2016
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