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Turkey blames Kurdish rebels for Ankara attack, makes arrests

The retaliation was reported as funerals were held in Ankara for the victims of Sunday’s bombing.

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“People have been talking about another bomb attack coming for more than a week but the government took no precautions and didn’t warn anyone”, Nihat Gorgulu, the uncle of one of the victims, told AFP.

The Islamic State has also carried out attacks in Turkey in recent months. About 125 people were wounded, with 50 of them still hospitalized.

At the scene of the incident forensics teams are at work.

Earlier, police said the woman had joined the PKK in 2013, while the second suspect, a Turkish citizen also had been linked to the outlawed group.

ANKARA launched a full-scale offensive against its Kurdish minority yesterday, bombing refugee camps in northern Iraq and rounding up dozens of political activists across Turkey itself. Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said there were “very serious and nearly certain” findings that the militant group was responsible.

According to Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus, there were at least 11 people detained in connection to the attack on March 13, and 10 more suspects are sought by authorities.

Seibert recalled the terror attack in Istanbul on January 12, which saw 12 German tourists die, and said Germans and Turks had demonstrated close solidarity against terrorism. A fragile peace process broke down in July.

The Turkish military also denied a claim by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who said Turkey’s military was entrenched a few hundred meters (yards) inside Syria to prevent Kurdish groups from strengthening their positions.

Turkey has frequently blocked access to social media sites, blaming their lack of restrictions on what it deems “terrorist propaganda”.

The airstrikes follow a vehicle bombing in Turkey’s capital Ankara on Sunday that killed at least 37 people, and which the government blamed on the PKK.

Turkey considers the PKK and the Kurdish militia in Syria to be one and the same, and has been pressing its USA allies to stop helping the Syrian Kurds.

The Turkish leader again vowed that Turkey would continue its fight against the rebels until they are wiped out.

In response to the bombing, the Turkish military carried out air strikes on Monday and struck northern Iraq’s Qandil mountain area where the PKK’s main bases are, and the military said 45 PKK insurgents were believed to have been killed.

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The military said the PKK targets were hit “with precision”, with a rebel spokesman confirming the strikes and saying that so far, there was no clear picture of the damage caused.

Carnations are placed at the site of Sunday's suicide bomb attack in Ankara Turkey