In a statement on Friday, the Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK) said they carried out the attack on military personnel on Wednesday, according to Firat News Agency which is known affiliated with the PKK.
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He said he had no doubt the Syrian PYD and its military wing were behind the rush-hour blast which killed 28 people.
Fourteen suspects have been detained over Wednesday’s auto bombing in Ankara that killed at least 28 people and wounded 61 others, Turkish Interior Minister Efkan Ala said Thursday.
US State Department spokesman John Kirby said Thursday it was still an “open question” who had carried out the Ankara attack.
However, the TAK statement said the bomber, who died in the attack, was born in 1989 in Van in eastern Turkey.
The TAK is a group that split from the Kurdistan’s Workers’ Party (PKK) in 2004 because it regarded their tactics as “too humane”.
The focus on the Syrian Kurdish fighters is threatening an open dispute with Turkey’s North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally the United States, which classifies the PKK as a terror group but works with the YPG as an effective force in the fight against jihadists in Syria.
However, it now appears that TAK’s claim of responsibility has debunked Turkey’s prior assumptions.
An SDF official said Turkish troops are bombing their positions in border areas, inflicting casualties among civilians.
The militia is backed by the U.S.in its fight against the Islamic State group, a fact causing much consternation in Ankara, which considers the People’s Protection Units (YPG) to be a terrorist organization.
The YPG denies responsibility for Wednesday’s bombing. The group is “responsible for multiple terrorist attacks in Turkey, which targeted tourist locations, military sites, and government buildings, resulting in several deaths”, according to the USA government. The Turkish military stated that a high-level meeting of PKK members was taking place at the time, adding that the strikes had killed around 70 people.
The Ankara claims, however, were met with skepticism from the US.
Turkey’s air force has been striking PKK positions in northern Iraq since a fragile two-and-a-half year-old peace process with the group collapsed in July, reigniting a fierce three-decade old conflict.
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Yesterday, western powers turned down a Russian draft resolution calling for an immediate end to cross-border shellings and plans – supported by Turkey – for foreign ground intervention in Syria.
