Kurdish group TAK claims Ankara auto bomb attack

Erdogan has since placed blame on the Syrian Kurdish group PYD, however, the Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (also known as TAK) took responsibility for the attack via the group’s website Friday.

Within hours of the Ankara attack, Turkish warplanes bombed bases in northern Iraq of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged a three-decade insurgency against Turkey and which Davutoglu accused of collaborating in the auto bombing.

The U.S. National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) has directly linked the TAK to the PKK, calling it the “urban terrorist wing” of the cult-like Marxist-inspired group, which has been officially designated a terrorist group by the United States and some of its allies.

The TAK has made clear in the past that it had no connection with the PKK, which is regarded as a terrorist organization by the United States.

“This act was conducted to avenge the massacre of defenceless, injured civilians”, the group said, in reference to a large-scale Turkish security operation against militants in the town of Cizre.

Iranian media misquoted the Turkish prime minister’s statements earlier this week on PYD/YPG attacks and Turkey’s response. It said the attack was in retaliation for the military’s stepped-up operations against the PKK.

Experts are concerned the government, headed by President Erdogan Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has found itself in a toxic mix of being unable to focus on much-needed economic reforms, renewed fighting with Kurdish militias, the rising threat of Islamic State forces, and a growing refugee crisis – all with the Syrian war on its doorstep.

The group most recently claimed responsibility for a mortar attack at Istanbul’s second airport in December that left an aircraft cleaner dead.

Turkey’s military pushed ahead with its cross-border artillery shelling campaign against YPG positions in Syria, Anadolu reported.

“The perpetrator of the incident, however, they have not claimed responsibility, is the PYD and YPG”, Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul.

The leader of the main Syrian Kurdish group, Salih Muslim, denied his group was behind the bombing, and warned Turkey against taking ground action in Syria.

Ankara appears increasingly uneasy over the group’s recent gains across its border and has continued to shell the militia despite global calls for it to stop.

In a statement, the TAK said a 27-year-old Turkish national, Abdulbaki Sonmez, had carried out Wednesday’s rush-hour car-bombing on a Turkish military convoy in the country’s capital.

Washington did not immediately comment on the call, beyond saying Obama has given his condolences over Wednesday’s bombing in the Turkish capital.