Turkey Accuses Kurdish Syrian Militant of Carrying Out Ankara Attack

In this view across the city of Ankara, Turkey, smoke billows from a fire following an explosion Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2016, after assailants exploded a auto bomb near vehicles carrying military personnel in the Turkish capital, killing seve…

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said Wednesday the Turkey-based Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, worked with a wing of the Syria-based Democratic Union Party, or PYD, to carry out Wednesday’s attack.

The president of Turkey has stated that he has evidence of Kurdish YPG militia’s involvement in the Ankara blast.

“Yesterday’s attack was directly targeting Turkey and the perpetrator is the YPG and the divisive terrorist organization PKK”. “The right to take all kinds of measures against the Syrian regime is reserved”. “The YPG is a tool of the Syrian regime and the regime is directly responsible for the attack”, the prime minister said Thursday.

Davutoglu earlier blamed the YPG for a January bombing in Istanbul that was later ascribed to the Islamic State group.

July 20, 2015: In the predominantly Kurdish town of Suruc, near the Syrian/Turkish border, at least 32 people were killed in a suicide bombingblamed on militants from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Turkey, a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member, has enjoyed close economic ties with the autonomous Kurdistan region but is nevertheless suspicious of the Peshmerga links to Kurdish groups in Turkey and Syria.

The PYD, the Syrian branch of the terrorist PKK organization, has launched massive attacks on northern Syria’s Azaz district, a Turkmen commander said Thursday.

Turkey has also been helping efforts led by the U.S.to combat the Islamic State group in neighboring Syria, and has faced several deadly bombings in the past year that were blamed on IS.

“We hope that it doesn’t happen”, Lars Bystrom, spokesman form the Stockholm Police said of the risk of further attacks.

Since last weekend, Turkey has been shelling People’s Protection Units targets in northern Syria, while demanding that the group withdraw from areas it has captured.

Turkey has repeatedly condemned the massive crackdown on the now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group, from which Morsi hails. “They don’t consider Turkey as an enemy”, he told Reuters news agency.

Erdogan has been very angry at the US for not categorizing and condemning the PYD/YPG the same way it does the PKK, invariably arguing that they both represent the same entity. Separate security sources in the southeast, however, said they believed ISIL militants may have been behind it. Six soldiers were killed and one wounded on Thursday when a remote-controlled handmade bomb hit their vehicle, the military said.

He said the bomber was a Syrian national named Salih Necar.

Authorities have detained nine people in connection with the attack, he added. “We stand with our Turkish allies in the face of this horrific act, which only strengthens our resolve to deepen our ongoing cooperation in the fight against terrorism”, he said.