The blast took place where around 10 bus stops are located. Let him come here, I will insult President Tayyip Erdogan in the face. The militant group has been blamed for at least four bomb attacks on Turkey since June 2015, including the killing of 10 German tourists in Istanbul in January.
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Last week, Turkey’s military ended a three-month operation against the militants in the historic Sur district of Diyarbakir – the largest city in the country’s mostly Kurdish southeast.
“It is not the first time it has happened”, he said, adding that the attacks including the latest one clearly revealed the “ugly face of the terrorist organisation”.
Just after the announcement of an increase in the death toll, Turkish warplanes bombed camps belonging to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq, Turkey’s army said.
“Terrorist groups, including Kurdish groups, Daesh (formerly referred to as Isil) and far left organisations, continue to plan and carry out attacks”.
According to reports, while Turkish Interior Minister Efkan Ala has briefed Erdogan about the blast via telephone, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu met leading security officials. The Turkish government said the Islamic State extremist militia was responsible for that attack.
Both the USA and Turkey have generally good relations with the Kurds in northern Iraq; Monday’s airstrikes in northern Iraq targeted PKK bases rather than installations of the Iraqi Kurds.
“All five attacks are linked to the fallout of the Syrian civil war”, said Soner Cagaptay, a Turkey expert at the Washington Institute in emailed comments.
Evidence shows that one of two suspected perpetrators of a vehicle bomb attack which killed 37 people in the Turkish capital Ankara was a woman who joined the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group in 2013, security officials said on Monday.
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As with previous attacks, the Turkish government have imposed a ban on media organisations publishing graphic images of the scene of the attack.
