Large explosion in Ankara injures several people

At least 28 people were killed.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Turkey will never take a step back from its “justified fight” against all terrorist organizations.

This item has been corrected to show the name of the secretary general is Jens Stoltenberg.

Asked to comment on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s comments that the US should chose between its ally, Turkey, or the YPG, Kirby said the issue was not about choosing sides, and that even the best friends do not “agree on everything”.

Turkey has in the last months waged an all-out assault on the PKK, which has repeatedly attacked members of the security forces with roadside bombings on their convoys in the southeast.

Jordan on Thursday condemned the vehicle bomb explosion Wednesday in Ankara, expressing solidarity with Turkey against terrorism.

Kurtulmus has said a delegation of seven investigators, headed by the Ankara Chief Prosecutor, was working on the case.

Peter says there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. In none of the suicide bomb attacks, including those in Suruç in the Southeast as well as against the targets of the main pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) before the June 2015 national elections, were the assailants caught.

In a message on Twitter Wednesday Ambassador John Bass said: “Our hearts and prayers go out to those affected”.

In messages posted on their Twitter accounts, the British and American ambassadors to Turkey also condemned the attack.

Media reports said three trucks entered Madaya, which is besieged by government troops, in Damascus province, and the UN’s humanitarian coordinator for Syria, Yacoub El Hillo, said aid trucks had reached the Shiite towns of Fuaa and Kafraya, in northwestern Idlib province, which are surrounded by rebels.

The governor of Ankara has raised the death toll in the attack in the Turkish capital to 18.

Bystrom said “it was very hard to say” whether it was linked to the Wednesday evening blast. Wednesday’s blast in Ankara targeted buses carrying military personnel.

Davutoglu said: “The attack was carried out by the PKK together with a person who sneaked into Turkey from Syria”, referring to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, known as the PKK.

Meanwhile, another convoy in south-east Turkey has been hit by a bomb, killing at least six troops.

The government has banned on domestic reporting of the incident.

There’s also been new violence in the area, NPR’s Peter Kenyon reports, with another attack on Turkey’s military today.

The bombing prompted Davutoglu to scrap a planned trip to Brussels on Thursday to discuss Europe’s migrant crisis.

The Turkish General Staff said there were military personnel among the casualties, as the explosion was caught on surveillance cameras near the scene.

The attack struck the heart of power in the Turkish capital, hitting an area where the headquarters of the army, the parliament and prime minister’s offices are in close proximity.

Dogan news agency says Wednesday’s explosion occurred near military lodgings. The explosion, which came shortly after 6:30 pm (1630 GMT), sent a large plume of smoke above central Ankara.

Police said all the windows of the centre were blown out and that technicians were on site to investigate the cause.