However, after having accused forces linked with the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia of a deadly explosion in Ankara on Wednesday, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu vowed to continue the military efforts against Kurdish groups in Syria.
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It accuses the YPG and PKK of being behind a bombing that killed 28 people in the Turkish capital on Wednesday night, a claim denied by the Syrian Kurdish group.
Kurdish groups besides the Kurdistan Freedom Hawks – namely the PYD, YPG and PKK – have denied involvement in the Ankara attack.
Additionally, six soldiers have died and one critically injured in a bomb attack perpetrated by PKK rebels on an armored military vehicle in the southeastern province of Diyarbakir on Thursday, reports WashingtonPost.
Experts tend to agree, however, that blaming Syrian Kurds for the bombing was likely a way for Turkey and its ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) to justify its continued attacks on YPG positions in northern Syria – and signal that they will continue.
Davutoğlu criticized the US for supporting Kurdish militias in the mission against the Islamic State. Ankara connects that group to its own domestic Kurdish element, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which both Turkey and the US deem a terrorist organization.
On the ground, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces alliance seized the town of Al-Shadadi from ISIS, with backing from US-led air strikes, a monitor and Kurdish sources said. Washington and Ankara have been split on the use of Syrian Kurdish militias against the Islamic State since the terrorist group emerged as a global threat in 2014.
“The ground operations will be against all terror groups, will support the moderate opposition and secure humanitarian aid”, Celik said, adding that any action would not be taken by Turkey alone.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry invited ambassadors of the five permanent United Nations security council members – Britain, China, France, Russia and the USA – separately to “brief” them on the attack, along with the EU, Germany and the Netherlands.
Turkey’s leader said USA weapons have fallen into the hands of “terror” factions in the troubled region.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan insisted that the violence will not stand in the way of Turkish unity, however.
A senior security official said the alleged bomber had entered Turkey from Syria in July 2014, although he may have crossed the border illegally multiple times before that, and said he had contact with the PKK and Syrian intelligence. But he suggested that Kurdish militants, angered by Turkish military operations in the country’s southeast, may have acted independently. Turkey has been openly shelling YPG troops fighting on the front line, who are backed by the West in the fight against ISIL and by Russian Federation against anti-Assad rebels. But while the US, like Turkey, lists the PKK as a terrorist organization, it has dismissed Turkey’s requests that the USA cut off its support from the YPG, calling the group “an effective fighting force”.
The People’s Protection Units, or YPG, says its main role has been to protect “our people from barbaric gangs” in Syria, referring to the Islamic State group and al-Qaida’s affiliate.
“On February 17 in the evening a suicide attack was carried out by a sacrifice warrior on a military convoy of the fascist Turkish Republic in Ankara…”
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“And if Ankara provides convincing evidence that the PYD was behind the attack, Washington will be left between a rock and a hard place to choose either Ankara or PYD as its key ally against the so-called Islamic State in Syria”, he said.
