Turkey PM Blames Kurdish Militants For Ankara Attack

Firefighters prepare to extinguish fire after an explosion in Ankara, Turkey.

The Wednesday night bombing targeted military vehicles in the Turkish capital.

Turkey’s military says its jets hit Kurdish rebel positions across the border in northern Iraq, following a suicide bombing that targeted military personnel in Ankara killed 28 people. The report could not be independently verified.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed retaliation against the perpetrators of the attack, which came on the heels of a spate of deadly strikes in Turkey blamed on jihadists but also on Kurdish rebels.

The House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said the terrorist attack at the heart of Turkey’s capital “is a reminder that terrorists won’t stop until they are stopped”.

The PKK is the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, a banned militant organization in Turkey that is battling Ankara for more political rights.

Ambassadors from the Netherlands, Germany and delegations from the European Union and the United Nations were also invited to the briefing. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because she wasn’t authorized to speak publicly on the issue.

“We say to the people of Turkey and the worldwide community: there is no relation between us, the YPG, and yesterday’s incidents in Ankara”, it added. Ankara fears that the emboldened Syrian Kurds might eventually carve out a separatist state with their PKK comrades in southeast Turkey.

“The attack has direct links with YPG”.

The U.S.-led coalition has carried out airstrikes in the past to support Kurds in Syria as they fought Islamic State.

The comments may further anger Turkish leaders who have repeatedly slammed US support for the YPG.

In a live television speech, Davutoglu said the bombing showed that the Syrian Kurdish YPG is a terrorist organisation and that Turkey expects cooperation from its allies against the group.

Davutoglu said he also held embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad responsible because Assad and his government have acknowledged on a number of occasions that they provide arms to the YPG.

But he said that responsibility for the Ankara bombing, which Turkish authorities rapidly pinned on the Syrian Kurdish group, known as the YPG, is “still an open question”.

The co-leader of the PKK umbrella group, Cemil Bayik, was quoted by the Firat news agency as saying he did not know who was responsible for the Ankara bombing.

Erdogan insisted the evidence pointed to the Syrian Kurdish group. Six soldiers were killed and one wounded on Thursday when a remote-controlled handmade bomb hit their vehicle, the military said.

Turkey’s air force has been striking PKK positions in northern Iraq since a fragile peace process collapsed in July. The fighting has displaced tens of thousands in the area as Turkey carried out large-scale military operations against PKK-linked militants. He also denied claims that the group’s armed YPG wing was firing into Turkey. Fourteen people have been arrested in connection with the attack.

The bomber, identified as Salih Necar, was thought to have entered Turkey with refugees from Syria.