Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jabari Ansari has abstained from calling the Syrian group PYD a terrorist organization during a press conference in Tehran.
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It wasn’t immediately clear what part they had in the February 17 attack, which targeted buses carrying military personnel and killed 28 people.
A splinter Kurdish militant group, the Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK), has since claimed responsibility for the bombing.
The YPG’s political arm has denied the group was behind the Ankara attack and said Turkey was using the bombing to justify an escalation in fighting in northern Syria. The attack drew global condemnation and Turkish leaders have vowed to find those responsible and to retaliate against them with force.
Ja’afari’s words marked one of the Syrian regime’s first direct acknowledgements of its cooperation with the PYD.
Turkey’s military pushed ahead with its cross-border artillery shelling campaign against YPG positions in Syria, Anadolu reported.
The war, which has left the country in ruins after five years of fighting, has resulted in the deaths of more than 250,000 people and displaced 10 million, according to United Nations figures.
In a statement published by the state-run SANA news agency Saturday, it accused Turkey of committing “crimes” against the Syrians by firing artillery shells at areas in the northern province of Aleppo. Russians have meanwhile been told to stay away by Moscow after Turkey shot down a Russian jet near the border with Syria last October. Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu had identified the bomber as Syrian national Salih Neccar and said he was a member of the Syrian Kurdish militia group People’s Protection Units, or YPG.
In recent months, Turkey has been apparently considering sending ground forces to Syria to ostensibly fight Daesh. But Turkey has recently pressed the US on its support for the YPG and has even suggested the Americans choose between its North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally and a group Ankara considers a terrorist outfit.
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The link to the NCTC’s PKK (KGK) profile can be found at.
