Turkey has been targeting Kurdish militia groups in both Syria and Iraq for some time now. Turkey has been battling the PKK for decades.
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Buses carrying military personnel were targeted while waiting at traffic lights at an intersection, the Turkish military said while condemning the “contemptible and dastardly” attack.
Davutoglu also accused the YPG of being in league with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and fighting the Syrian opposition groups that Turkey backs. “Those that see Turkey’s enemy as their friend will lose Turkey’s friendship”.
Turkey’s military, meanwhile, said its jets conducted cross-border raids against Kurdish rebel positions in northern Iraq, hours after the Ankara attack, striking at a group of about 60-70 PKK rebels.
He also denied claims the YPG was firing into Turkey.
Last week, Turkey lashed out at the U.S. for refusing to recognise the YPG’s political wing – the PYD Democratic Union Party – as an extremist organisation.
However, he suggested the bombing could have been carried out in “retaliation for the massacres in Kurdistan”. “It is possible that those who did it will soon explain why they did it”.
Police spokesman Lars Bystrom says no arrests have been made, adding police couldn’t immediately say whether it was linked to a bombing in Ankara that killed 28 people. It said they had arrived with weapons, though it could not provide details.
It comes as Turkey shells Kurdish militants in Syria who have seized territory in recent days from rebel groups backed by Ankara in Aleppo province.
Wednesday’s explosion hit three military vehicles and a private vehicle in central Ankara near the Turkish Parliament buildings, Anadolu reported, citing Ankara Gov. Mehmet Kiliclar.
The PKK launched an insurgency against the Turkish state in 1984.
Reports say those killed were all military officers. Turkey said a separate attack by PKK militants in the country’s southeast killed six soldiers.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks, and there are two possible perpetrators: the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) or the so-called Islamic State (IS or ISIS or ISIL or Daesh).
Despite Turkey’s increasing anger, analysts said the United States is unlikely to change course and abandon the Kurdish fighters. “NATO Allies stand shoulder to shoulder in the fight against terrorism”.
The ongoing Saudi-led military exercises dubbed “North Thunder” include troops from 20 nations, according to Saudi state media, noting that they include air, sea and land forces.
Ahmet Davutoglu said Thursday that Turkey’s Kurdish rebels collaborated with the Syrian man to carry out the attack. “This was already known to us, but we hope this act shows all our allies and the world this fact”.
But then he also goes on to link Najar with this Syrian Kurdish fighting group.
Concerns over Turkey’s shelling of the YPG over the weekend prompted the United States and France to urge restraint, and Syria to call on the U.N. Security Council it to intervene.
U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter echoed Erdogan’s remarks.
(AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici). Security officials stand near the explosion site in Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2016, after assailants exploded a auto bomb near vehicles carrying military personnel in the Turkish capital, killing several people and…
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These realities are not lost on the Turkish population or the country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has previously argued that the PKK can not be defeated through military force and has advocated negotiations and a lasting settlement with the group.
