Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, centre, flanked by his deputy Numan Kurtulmus, left, and Interior Minister Efkan Ala, speaks to the media after a security meeting in Ankara, Turkey, Saturday, Feb. 20, 2016.
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In addition to the president, Turkey’s foreign minister has accused the United States of making conflicting statements about the YPG, the Syrian Kurdish militia group accused of planting a bomb that killed at least 28 people in Ankara this week.
“This act was conducted to avenge the massacre of defenseless, injured civilians”, the group said, in reference to a large-scale Turkish military attack against militants in the town of Cizre, reports The Associated Press (AP).
Due to their affiliation to the PKK, the PYD and YPG are considered to terrorist groups by Turkey, but not the United States.
The government has blamed the PKK and the Syrian Kurdish YPG for the attacks.
Following the attack, Turkey stepped up pressure on the United States and other allies to cut off support to the militia group.
Hours after the bombing and vowing that the culprits would “pay a price”, Davutoglu had said the bomber was a Syrian national named Salih Necar who was a YPG operative.
France has been one of the most hostile opponents of Assad, and following the jihadist attacks in Paris in November it has stepped up air strikes against the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq.
The group is seen as a splinter that broke away from the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) more than a decade ago, though some security experts claim there are still links.
The YPG’s political arm has denied the group was behind the Ankara attack and said Turkey was using it to justify an escalation in fighting in northern Syria.
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On Thursday, six soldiers were killed in southeastern Turkey after PKK rebels detonated a bomb on a road linking the cities of Diyarbakir and Bingol as their military vehicle was passing by, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported. The blast was the second deadly bombing in Ankara in four months. Turkey also intensified its almost week-long shelling of positions in Aleppo province on Friday, where it has sought to halt the advance of a Kurdish-led alliance against rebel forces.
