Turkey continues to shell PYD positions in Syria’s Azaz

Turkey had named the man who detonated the Ankara bomb as Salih Necar, a Syrian national and member of the People’s Protection Units (YPG).

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday that the Kurdish group had used U.S.-supplied weapons to carry out the bombing, and that he would discuss the issue with President Barack Obama, Reuters reported.

Wednesday’s attack is the latest in a series of explosions in Turkey.

The Turkish government also accused the YPG of being behind the Wednesday auto bombing in the capital, Ankara, which claimed the lives of 28 people.

YPG is the armed wing of PYD, which is the Syrian branch of the terrorist PKK group.

To make matters worse, in recent weeks, U.S.-backed YPG fighters have seized territory from Syrian rebels who are facing a major Syrian-army offensive, supported by Russian airstrikes, near Aleppo, just south of the Turkish border. Turkey is bombing PYD-controlled areas of Syria near the Turkish border, and it could follow with a ground incursion. Ankara regards these militias as terrorists due to their affiliation with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Turkey.

In a statement on Friday, the Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK) said they carried out the attack on military personnel on Wednesday, according to Firat News Agency which is known affiliated with the PKK. Washington urged Turkey to immediately stop bombing the Kurds both in Turkey and in Syria. Most recently, TAK had claimed responsibility for a mortar attack in December at Istanbul’s second airport that killed a cleaner. Mr Davutoglu also blamed Syria’s government for allegedly backing the Syrian Kurdish militias.

“Resorting to terrorist groups like the YPG in the fight against Daesh in Syria is above all a sign of weakness”, Mr Cavusoglu said, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamist group.

Turkey’s air force has been striking PKK positions in northern Iraq since a fragile two-and-a-half year-old peace process with the group collapsed in July, reigniting a fierce three-decade old conflict.

Mehmet Celik of the Daily Sabah newspaper told Al Jazeera the attacks would increase support for Turkish military intervention in Syria, adding that any action would extend beyond fighting the YPG.

Since Feb. 13, Turkish military has been shelling northern Syria intermittently in retaliation to artillery fire from PYD forces based around Azaz.

“Yesterday’s attack was directly targeting Turkey and the perpetrator is the YPG and the divisive terrorist organisation PKK”.