One day after a auto bomb targeting military vehicles killed at least 28 people in Ankara, Turkey’s leaders say the attacker was a Syrian man with links to Kurdish militants in both Turkey and Syria.
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“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”, said Dr Davutoglu, who identified the bomber as Syrian national Salih Necar.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey will not cease its attacks on Kurdish forces even though the Kurds have been the only consistently effective ground force against common foe Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL).
Turkey’s military said its jets retaliated by striking Kurdish rebel positions across the border in northern Iraq on Wednesday night. The military launched airstrikes Wednesday evening against PKK bases in northern Iraq, reportedly killing 60-70 people, including top leaders. A fragile peace process with Kurdish rebels collapsed in the summer and renewed fighting has displaced tens of thousands of civilians. Sky correspondent Alex Rossi in Ankara points to the explosion’s proximity to Turkey’s parliament building as well as the military complex.
In an apparent appeal to the United States, Mr Davutoglu called on allies to withdraw their support for Syrian Kurdish militias.
No groups came forward initially, and Soner Cagaptay, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for the Near East Policy think tank, suggested the possibility of ISIS or PKK, which Turkey considers a terrorist group. Turkey said a separate attack by PKK militants in the country’s southeast killed six soldiers. A suicide bombing in Ankara in October killed more than 100 people. Davutoglu vowed to make the culprits ‘pay a price, ‘ saying Turkey would take any kind of measure on its border including self-defence.
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.
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Promising that the entire nation of “all 78 million citizens” stands united in the wake of terror attacks, the Turkish prime minister said: “Those who mounted and instigated the atrocious attack that targeted our country, great nation and democracy will never attain their aims”.
