Turkey’s Erdogan says Syrian Kurdish militia used US weapons on civilians

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 group most recently claimed responsibility for a mortar attack at Istanbul’s second airport in December that left an aircraft cleaner dead. “Resorting to terrorist groups like the YPG in the fight against Daesh in Syria is above all a sign of weakness”, he said, using an alternate name for the Islamic State.

There has been no claim of responsibility for Wednesday’s attack, which struck a bus full of members of Turkey’s military as it paused at a traffic light in a central Ankara neighborhood that houses the nation’s parliament and government headquarters, according to Turkey’s official Anadolu News Agency.

Turkish fighter jets on Thursday pounded Syrian Kurdish rebel positions across the border in northern Iraq in retaliation for an attack in Ankara on Wednesday that killed at least 28 people. “Secretary Kerry called Turkish Foreign Minister Cavusoglu today to express his deep condolences for the death of Turkish military personnel and civilians in yesterday’s heinous terrorist attack in downtown Ankara”. Turkey, a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member, has enjoyed close economic ties with the autonomous Kurdistan region but is nevertheless suspicious of the Peshmerga links to Kurdish groups in Turkey and Syria.

In an interview with The Associated Press, the leader of the main Syrian Kurdish group, Salih Muslim, denied his group was behind the bombing, and he warned Turkey against taking ground action in Syria.

Davutoglu said PKK militants collaborated with the Syrian man to carry out the deadly attack.

Turkey, opposed to the government in neighboring Syria and anxious about advances by Kurdish militants in Syrian territory, this week had to deny a media report that it had already sent troops over the border.

The US does however concede that it has air-dropped weapons to a Kurdish-Arab coalition – of which the YPG is a part – who are fighting Islamic State. The authorities also caught two people in a auto loaded with 500 kg of explosives on Thursday evening in the Dicle district of Diyarbakir, security sources said.

The main Kurdish militia in Syria says it has no links to the bombing in the Turkish capital, adding that accusations by Turkey’s prime minister are “lies” aimed at paving a way for a Turkish attack on Kurdish areas in Syria.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition activist group that monitors the Syria war, said that U.S.-backed Syria Democratic Forces fighters had seized eight villages around the town of Hol in the past 24 hours. Turkey is blaming a Kurdish militant group – the same group that America’s backing in Syria in the fight against ISIS.

The group said that its relationship with the PKK has been severed. The claim couldn’t be verified. The military said the group included a number of senior PKK leaders.

A collapsed ceasefire with the PKK back after two years of relative peace in July has sparked a flare-up of violence, attacks and government crackdowns.