Turkish Report: Syrian National Responsible for Ankara Car Bomb

In an escalation of violence a bomb detonated by remote control killed seven Turkish security force members travelling in a military vehicle in southeast Turkey, security sources told Reuters. “I can assure you that not even one bullet is fired by YPG into Turkey”, Muslim said.

The massive auto bomb struck five buses carrying military service personnel when it stopped at a red traffic light in the centre of the capital on Wednesday evening.

Hundreds of Syrian rebels with weapons and vehicles have re-entered Syria from Turkey over the last week to reinforce insurgents fending off the Kurdish-led assault on Azaz, rebel sources said on Thursday. It was the second deadly bombing in Ankara in four months.

Mr Davutoglu said the bombing in Ankara proved the YPG is a terrorist group, and said he expects co-operation from Turkey’s allies in tackling them.

Davutoglu called on the U.S. to end its co-operation with the YPG and list it as a terrorist group.

SYRIA DEMOCRATIC FORCES: A U.S.-backed military alliance of Kurdish, Arab and Christian fighters that is now the main fighting force against IS. In recent weeks, the United States has angered Turkey by supporting the group in the fight in Syria against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL.

The Turks claim their artillery barrages are a response to hostile fire coming across the border from YPG positions in Syria, which Saleh Muslim also denied.

“It has with certainty been revealed that this attack was carried out by members of the terrorist organisation in Turkey in cooperation with a YPG member who infiltrated from Syria”, Davutoglu told reporters.

Turkey insists that the Syrian militias and the PKK are the same and both are terror groups.

“We are not looking at an explicit breakdown of ties, but the USA will not be sensitive to any of Turkey’s priorities in Syria”, Naz Masraff, director for Europe at political risk consultants Eurasia Group, said in e-mailed comments.

That’s drawn the ire of Erdogan, who said last week the United States is responsible for a “sea of blood” in Syria because of its support for the YPG.

“This game of terror can come back and hit them like a boomerang”, he said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because she wasn’t authorized to talk publicly on the issue.

Turkey responded to the Ankara blast with airstrikes in northern Iraq on Wednesday night targeting the PKK, which it says is affiliated with YPG.

Turkey, which is already home to 2.5 million Syrian refugees, has also been a key focus of European Union efforts to halt the biggest flow of refugees to the continent since World War II.

Cemil Bayik, one of the top leaders of the PKK who lives in northern Iraq, said he didn’t know who had carried out the bombing, but speculated that it may have been “an act of retaliation for the massacres in Kurdistan” – a reference to a brutal military campaign being waged by Turkey’s military against Kurds in southeastern Turkey. The claim couldn’t be verified.

Turkish jets carried out air strikes against PKK targets in northern Iraq shortly after the attack killing 70 of its members, the Turkish leader said. A suicide bombing in Ankara in October killed more than 100 people.