Ankara bombing is work of Kurds and Assad, says Turkey

Feb 28, 2016, 20:23

Turkey's leaders are vowing to retaliate.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said between 60 and 70 PKK militants were killed in the airstrikes, including some senior figures of the Kurdish militant group.

Erdogan said 14 people have been detained in relation to the attack, and he expects that number to grow.

"It has been determined with certainty that this attack was carried out by members of the separatist terror organization together with a member of the YPG who infiltrated from Syria", Davutoglu said, identifying the bomber as Syrian national Salih Neccar, born in 1992.

The group most recently claimed responsibility for a mortar attack at Istanbul's second airport in December that left an aircraft cleaner dead.

"We are not responsible for who will die in the attacks" in tourist areas, they said in the Friday statement. "Furthermore, no one bearing this name has ever joined the People's Protection Units (YPG) in Amuda".

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It has aided the PYD, the Syrian-based Kurds, because it has fought reliably against the Islamic State group.

The YPG denied its members carried out the attack in a statement issued on Thursday.

The Russians support the Syrian Kurds and the Syrian government headed by President Bashar al-Assad.

On Thursday, the US State Department called on Turkey to stop shelling of the YPG which has denied being behind the Ankara bombing.

PYD is the Syrian affiliate of the terrorist PKK organization, which has targeted security forces as well as civilians in Turkey since 1984. It has been pressing its ally, the United States, to recognize the Syrian Kurdish forces as terrorists. Instead, Washington has worked to help them militarily as they battle ISIS and other factions in Syria. Despite the tension, there are no signs Turkey intends to back down. "It is out of the question for us to excuse a terror organization that threatens the capital of our country".

One of the two leaders of a Kurdish political group overseeing the YPG, Saleh Muslim, said the YPG was not behind the bombing in Ankara and it was all fabrication. Both Erdogan and Davutoglu have called on the United States to cut ties with the insurgents. The authorities also caught two people in a vehicle loaded with 500 kg of explosives on Thursday evening in the Dicle district of Diyarbakir, security sources said.

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"We have conducted no military attack and the ones who know it the best are the Turkish army and AKP government".

"Turkey will not shy away from using its right to self-defence at any time, any place or any occasion".

The worldwide community cannot tolerate the fact that Turkey may define the border lines of the countries in the Middle East on his own.

The bombing coincided with the launch by Turkey of artillery strikes into Syria to prevent Syrian Kurds advancing into a strategic corridor of territory near the Turkish border.

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