The suicide car bombing that killed 28 people in the capital Ankara has been blamed on a Syrian Kurdish militia fighter working with Kurdish militants inside Turkey by Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. He also vowed retaliation in both Syria and Iraq.
Late on Wednesday as military buses waiting at traffic lights near Turkey's armed forces' headquarters, parliament and government buildings in the administrative heart of Ankara were targeted by a the detonation of a car laden with explosives.
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 organization, Davutoglu said and he expected cooperation from its allies in combating the group as Turkey was a NATO member.
The bases 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 were bombed by Turkish war planes within hours.
Promising that those responsible would "pay the price", Davutoglu said that Turkey's armed forces would continue their shelling of recent days of YPG positions in northern Syria.
"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.
Initial findings suggested the Syrian Kurdish militia and the PKK were behind the bombing, said President Tayyip Erdogan who also added that 14 people had been detained.
While a senior member of the PKK said he did not know who was responsible, the political arm of the YPG denied involvement in the bombing.
Claiming that Turkey was using the attack to justify an escalation in fighting in northern Syria, the co-leader of the YPG's political wing denied that the affiliated YPG perpetrated the Ankara bombing.
"We are completely refuting that. ...Davutoglu is preparing for something else because they are shelling us as you know for the past week," Reuters reported quoting Saleh Muslim.
There has been a series of bombings in Turkey in the recent past most of which has been blamed on Islamic State militants.
Turkey is trying to contain some of the fiercest violence in decades in its predominantly Kurdish southeast as it is getting dragged ever deeper into the war in neighboring Syria.
A major Syrian army offensive around the northern city of Aleppo, backed by Russian air strikes, to seize ground from Syrian rebels near the Turkish border has given the YPG militia an advantage. It is regarded by Ankara as a hostile insurgent force deeply linked to the PKK.
Turkey fears that the advances will stoke Kurdish separatist ambitions at home. 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, Turkey has been bombarding YPG positions.
Rebel sources said that in order to reinforce insurgents fending off the Kurdish-led assault on Azaz, hundreds of Syrian rebels with weapons and vehicles have re-entered Syria from Turkey over the last week.
(Source:www.reuters.com)
Late on Wednesday as military buses waiting at traffic lights near Turkey's armed forces' headquarters, parliament and government buildings in the administrative heart of Ankara were targeted by a the detonation of a car laden with explosives.
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 organization, Davutoglu said and he expected cooperation from its allies in combating the group as Turkey was a NATO member.
The bases 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 were bombed by Turkish war planes within hours.
Promising that those responsible would "pay the price", Davutoglu said that Turkey's armed forces would continue their shelling of recent days of YPG positions in northern Syria.
"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.
Initial findings suggested the Syrian Kurdish militia and the PKK were behind the bombing, said President Tayyip Erdogan who also added that 14 people had been detained.
While a senior member of the PKK said he did not know who was responsible, the political arm of the YPG denied involvement in the bombing.
Claiming that Turkey was using the attack to justify an escalation in fighting in northern Syria, the co-leader of the YPG's political wing denied that the affiliated YPG perpetrated the Ankara bombing.
"We are completely refuting that. ...Davutoglu is preparing for something else because they are shelling us as you know for the past week," Reuters reported quoting Saleh Muslim.
There has been a series of bombings in Turkey in the recent past most of which has been blamed on Islamic State militants.
Turkey is trying to contain some of the fiercest violence in decades in its predominantly Kurdish southeast as it is getting dragged ever deeper into the war in neighboring Syria.
A major Syrian army offensive around the northern city of Aleppo, backed by Russian air strikes, to seize ground from Syrian rebels near the Turkish border has given the YPG militia an advantage. It is regarded by Ankara as a hostile insurgent force deeply linked to the PKK.
Turkey fears that the advances will stoke Kurdish separatist ambitions at home. 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, Turkey has been bombarding YPG positions.
Rebel sources said that in order to reinforce insurgents fending off the Kurdish-led assault on Azaz, hundreds of Syrian rebels with weapons and vehicles have re-entered Syria from Turkey over the last week.
(Source:www.reuters.com)
