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The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks — known as the TAK — claimed responsibility for this week’s deadly bombing in Turkey’s capital, calling it “revenge” for Turkish military actions and warning tourists their lives could be next.
The group, a splinter of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, described Wednesday’s attack that killed at least 28 people in central Ankara as a “suicide revenge mission” for Turkish military operations in the southeastern Turkish district of Cizre.
Ankara governor says the huge explosion is believed to have been a car bomb as witnesses shared images of the scene on social media.
At least 28 people were killed when a car bomb hit a military convoy in Ankara on Wednesday, in an attack blamed by Turkish security sources on Kurdish militants.
Two Turkish soldiers have been killed and two others have been wounded in clashes with outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants in the Sur district of the southeastern Diyarbakır province where a round-the-clock curfew has been in place since Dec. 2, 2015.
According to a statement released by the Turkish Armed Forces at 9 a.m. on Feb. 17, the soldier identified as Mehmet Ali Dinç was heavily wounded while two others sustained light wounds in an operation carried out against PKK militants in Sur late Feb. 16.
“The wounded soldiers were promptly transferred to a hospital. However, despite all efforts at the hospital, our heavily wounded comrade-in-arms could not be saved,” the statement said.
The Syrian government has confirmed that its army positions were targeted by Turkish shelling on Saturday, which also hit the positions of the Syrian Kurdish militias in the northern Aleppo province. Turkish shelling reportedly continued Sunday.
Syria’s government has condemned Turkey for shelling Syrian territory, describing the act as direct support for “terrorist” groups, Syrian state media reported on Sunday, citing the letter to the United Nations.
Turkey and Saudi Arabia could launch a ground operation in Syria against the Islamic State (IS) militant group, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was quoted as saying on Saturday.
“If there will be a comprehensive strategy within the scope of fight against IS, we all said that Turkey and Saudi Arabia could launch a ground operation,” the minister was quoted by Turkey’s Haberturk daily as saying after attending the Munich Security Conference.