The co-leader of the Syrian Democratic Union Party, or PYD, effectively the political arm of the YPG, denied that the militia had perpetrated the Ankara bombing and said Turkey was using the attack to justify an escalation in fighting in northern Syria.
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Turkey has claimed Kurds based in Syria were responsible for Wednesday’s vehicle bomb attack on a military convoy in Ankara, as another explosion hit a convoy in the south-east. Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday said that he hoped the bombing would bring “our friends in the global community to understand how tight the PYD and YPG’s connection to the PKK is”.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said: “In the battle against those responsible for these inhuman acts we are on the side of Turkey”.
An Arab-Kurdish alliance dominated by the YPG has made significant advances against IS and other insurgents in northern Syria near the Turkish border in the past week.
Turkey has also been helping efforts led by the United States to combat the Islamic State group in neighboring Syria, and has faced several deadly bombings in the previous year that were blamed on IS.
“A direct link between the attack and the YPG has been established”, he said, adding that PKK militants inside Turkey provided the YPG logistical support.
Yeni Safak, a newspaper close to the government, said Thursday that the man who detonated the auto bomb Wednesday that targeted buses carrying military personnel was identified from his fingerprints.
The YPG has taken advantage in recent weeks of a major Syrian army offensive around the northern city of Aleppo, backed by Russian air strikes, to seize ground from Syrian rebels near the Turkish border.
Turkey is alarmed that the YPG now controls much of the Syrian border with Turkey and is essentially creating a state within a state.
Six soldiers were killed and another was wounded Thursday in a roadside bombing that hit an armored military vehicle in the southeastern Turkish province of Diyarbakir, Turkey’s semiofficial Anadolu news agency reported, citing the Turkish General Staff.
During the last week, as Kurdish militias in the YPG have gotten to within 25 kilometers of Turkey’s border, Turkey has been shelling YPG positions. The explosion occurred in what was supposed to be a super-secure area in central Ankara that contains Parliament buildings and military headquarters.
Erdogan claimed the aim was to fight the Islamic State group. The deadliest came in October when a peace rally outside Ankara’s main train station killed 102 people.
“We will continue our fight against the pawns that carry out such attacks, which know no moral or humanitarian bounds, and the forces behind them with more determination every day”, Erdogan said in a statement.
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Worse, the Syrian government – which Turkey wants overthrown – is preparing to place rebel-held eastern Aleppo under siege.
