Turkey announces new security measures following Ankara attack: PM

July 20, 2015: In the predominantly Kurdish town of Suruc, near the Syrian/Turkish border, at least 32 people were killed in a suicide bombingblamed on militants from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

“We have no doubt that the perpetrators are the YPG and PYD”, Erdogan said in Istanbul, referring to the main Syrian Kurdish militia and their political wing.

In a statement on Friday, the Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK) said they carried out the attack on military personnel on Wednesday, according to Firat News Agency which is known affiliated with the PKK.

Some Turkish media reports said 11 people had been killed.

The cycle of violence has shown no sign of waning.

Wednesday’s incident occurred at the height of rush hour when the vehicle packed with explosives detonated next to a few military buses as they waited in traffic near parliament and Turkey’s military headquarters. The military has blamed the PKK for the attack.

Turkey has reportedly continued its military campaign against YPG positions in Syria despite worldwide opposition.

Twenty-eight people were killed and 61 others were injured in the blast, according to Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus. “And we’ve also seen no evidence to substantiate the claim that the YPG is somehow smuggling any U.S.-origin weapons to the PKK”, he said.

“The YPG groups that we’re supporting, there are various parts of the YPG on the ground in Syria”. “The side that we think everybody needs to be on is the counter-Daesh side”, he said, referring to the Islamic State.

Earlier, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said evidence provided by Turkey’s Interior Ministry pointed to the terrorist PKK and PYD organizations as the culprit for Wednesday’s Ankara bombing.

The European Union, which has been overwhelmed by refugees, has sought Turkey’s help in stemming the influx, offering financial support and progress toward bringing the country into the bloc.

Russian Federation has repeatedly denied involvement in terrorist activities, instead insisting that it is Ankara which is sponsoring Islamist fanatics.

Saudi Arabia, which along with Turkey is backing rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces, has also said it would be ready to take part in an global force to be deployed in Syria. Little headway has been made toward a resolution.

And Ankara ratcheted up the tension even further today with its bombshell pronouncement, which heightened fears that the two military powers could be edging closer to all out war.