The U.S. National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) has directly linked the TAK to the PKK, calling it the “urban terrorist wing” of the cult-like Marxist-inspired group, which has been officially designated a terrorist group by the United States and some of its allies.
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“The attack was realised by the Immortal Battalion of the TAK”, the TAK said in a statement on their website. He said that unlike the PKK, which tends to carry out attacks in southeast Turkey, TAK is committed to operations in urban areas.
Cavusoglu expressed concern over what he described the US’ contradictory position.
Turkey has lately been engaged in a severe war of words with the United States over America’s backing of the YPG and its refusal to recognise it as a terrorist group.
The Turkish military described the attack as a terrorist act and a senior security source told Reuters that initial signs indicated that Kurdish militants from the PKK were responsible.
That has alarmed Turkey, which fears the advances will stoke Kurdish separatist ambitions at home.
Ankara believes that the Kurdish YPG military movement, which was reportedly behind the atrocity, is actively allied to brutal dictator al-Assad, describing it as a “pawn of the Syrian regime”.
The leader of the main Syrian Kurdish group, Salih Muslim, denied his group was behind the bombing, and warned Turkey against taking ground action in Syria.
“We are completely refuting that”.
Turkey has also been helping efforts led by the USA to combat ISIL in neighbouring Syria, and has faced several deadly bombings in the previous year that were blamed on the extremist group.
The bombing came as the Turkish government had been pressing the United States to cut off its support to Kurdish Syrian militias.
The spokesman also called on Turkey to stop its recent shelling of the YPG.
In mid-February, the Turkish heavy artillery started striking Syrian Kurds and positions of the Syrian army in the north of the province of Aleppo. “They don’t consider Turkey an enemy”, he said.
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Meanwhile, on Friday, a member of the Turkish parliament from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) accused the military of atrocities claiming they had “burned alive” more than 150 people trapped in basements. Six soldiers were killed after PKK rebels detonated a bomb on the road as their vehicle was passing by, according to Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency. Pentagon officials said at the time one had fallen into the hands of Daesh militants.
