Turkey blames Kurdish rebels, Syria for Ankara attack

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 vehicle bombing.

At least 28 people were killed on Wednesday by a auto bomb targeting the military in the Turkish capital.

The group believes Ankara is trying to provoke the YPG into attacking it, so that the Turkish government would have an excuse for a military intervention in northern Syria, where the YPG has been gaining ground recently at the expense of rebel groups that Turkey supports.

Turkey had been pressing the U.S.in recent weeks to cut off its support to the Kurdish Syrian militias that Ankara regards as terrorists due to their affiliation with the PKK.

Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency said there were casualties as a result of its bombing of rebel positions in Iraq but it did not provide specifics.

As the most effective fighting force on the ground against the extremist group, the YPG has directly coordinated air strikes with the United States and plays host to the small number of American special forces now deployed in Syria.

“We strongly condemn this cowardly attack which appears to have targeted buses carrying Turkish military personnel”. Davutoglu said Turkish artillery fire would continue until the Kurds vacate the area.

There were also reports from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights of hundreds of militants crossing the Turkish border into Syria on Wednesday.

The Syrian Afrin district bordering Turkey is predominantly Kurdish with a population estimated to be of more than 170,000 people according to a 2004 census.

“We’re 100 percent positive Turkey is maintaining contact with IS, we’ve seen it with our own eyes”, the PKK leader said, according to RT.

Also on Thursday, another explosion killed at least six Turkish soldiers in the southeast of the country. Davutoglu vowed to make the culprits ‘pay a price, ‘ saying Turkey would take any kind of measure on its border including self-defence. It came as Turkey is grappling with an array of serious issues, including renewed fighting with Kurdish rebels, threats from Islamic State militants and the Syria refugee crisis.

Some 81 people were injured in the Ankara terror attacks, the Turkish Ministry of Health announced.So far, 59 people have been discharged from hospital.

An ambulances arrives as security officials close the main roads around an explosion site in Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2016, after assailants exploded a auto bomb near vehicles carrying military personnel in the Tur…

While Turkey views the YPG as a terrorist group, and its associated political party, the PYD, as an affiliate of the PKK, Ankara’s American allies hold a different view.

If, as Turkey says, the YPG did indeed carry out the bombing in Ankara, it would be the first time the group has launched such an attack and would be out of character. Turkey both considers both the PKK and YPG to be terror groups, in contrast to the United States which only classifies the PKK as a terror organisation and works closely with the YPG as an effective force fighting jihadists in Syria. He also said nine people had been detained following the attack.

Earlier in February, Russian Defense Ministry said that Ankara’s activity on the border with Syria pointed out at intensive preparation for a military incursion in Syria.