This article is from the source 'washpo' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/explosion-in-ankara-kills-at-least-28-wounds-61-others/2016/02/17/c6055ebc-d5d9-11e5-a65b-587e721fb231_story.html

The article has changed 14 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 10 Version 11
Turkey accuses a Syrian Kurd of bombing Ankara and vows to retaliate Turkey accuses a Syrian Kurd of Ankara bombing and vows to retaliate
(about 2 hours later)
ISTANBUL — Turkey on Thursday accused Kurdish groups of responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed 28 people in the capital, Ankara, yesterday, 27 of them members of the Turkish military. ISTANBUL — Turkey on Thursday accused Syrian Kurds of responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed 28 people in the capital, Ankara, and vowed to retaliate, threatening new complications for the war in neighboring Syria and for the U.S. fight against the Islamic State.
In a televised speech, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that a member of the Syrian People’s Protection Units, or YPG, had carried out the attack in collaboration with Turkey’s Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK. The bombing coincided with heightened tensions between the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and Turkey, which has fired artillery into Syria in recent days to prevent Kurdish advances toward the Turkish border. The allegation that the YPG was involved in the Wednesday night bombing of a bus carrying Turkish military personnel raised the specter of deepening involvement by Turkey in the war in Syria. Of the fatalities, 27 were Turkish service members.
A Syrian national identified as Saleh Najjar from the Kurdish town of Amudah in northern Syria was identified as the perpetrator of the suicide bombing, and nine other people have been detained in connection with the attack, Davutoglu said. The attack also served to highlight growing fissures between Turkey and the United States over U.S. support for the YPG in the fight against the Islamic State. Washington in recent days has strenuously rejected Turkish efforts to force it to renounce the YPG, which Ankara calls a terrorist organization.
“A direct link between the attack and the YPG has been established,” Davutoglu said. “The attack was carried out by the PKK together with a person who sneaked into Turkey from Syria.” Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said a member of the YPG carried out the bombing in collaboration with Turkey’s Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has been waging a decades-old war for autonomy on behalf of Kurds in Turkey. He also accused Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of complicity, citing claims in the past by Assad and members of his government that they supply the YPG with arms.
Authorities named the bomber as Saleh Najjar from the Kurdish town of Amudah in northern Syria, and said 14 people have been detained in connection with the attack.
“A direct link between the attack and the YPG has been established,” Davutoglu told reporters in Ankara. “The attack was carried out by the PKK together with a person who sneaked into Turkey from Syria.”
[Blast strikes military convoy in Turkish capital; at least 28 killed][Blast strikes military convoy in Turkish capital; at least 28 killed]
The YPG swiftly denied any link to the bombing and said the Turkish government was accusing the YPG in order to justify attacks against the rapidly expanding Kurdish enclave known as Rojava that is in the process of being established in northern Syria. The YPG swiftly denied any link to the bombing. The group said the Turkish government was accusing the YPG to justify further attacks against the rapidly expanding Kurdish enclave known as Rojava that the Kurds are carving out in northern Syria. Turkey has vowed to prevent the creation of an autonomous Kurdish entity along the Syrian border because of fears that it would encourage Turkish Kurds to seek their own state.
Turkey has vowed to prevent the creation of an autonomous Kurdish entity along the Syrian border because of fears that it would encourage Turkish Kurds to seek their own state. The allegation is “part of an attempt by the Turkish prime minister to establish new foundations for their attacks on Rojava during the Syrian crisis,” the YPG said in a statement.
A statement issued by the group called the allegation “part of an attempt by the Turkish prime minister to establish new foundations for their attacks on Rojava during the Syrian crisis.”
“We say to the people of Turkey and the international community: there is no relation between us, the YPG, and yesterday’s incidents in Ankara,” it added.“We say to the people of Turkey and the international community: there is no relation between us, the YPG, and yesterday’s incidents in Ankara,” it added.
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. However, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the bombing proved Turkish assertions that the YPG is an affiliate of the PKK, which the United States and Turkey have designated as a terrorist organization.
It raised the specter of an escalation in the cross-border fighting. “With regard to our allies in the international arena, it will be understood how strong the [Kurdish Democratic Union Party] and YPG’s connection with the PKK in Turkey is,” he said. “This will make it possible for our allies to understand us better.” The YPG is the military wing of the Democratic Union Party.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyep Erdogan vowed in a statement after the attack that Turkey would retaliate against the “pawns that carry out such attacks . . . and the forces behind them.” The Ankara bombing played directly into the vast complexities of the fight underway just beyond Turkey’s borders in the northern Syrian province of Aleppo, and it seemed calculated — by whoever carried it out — to provoke a Turkish response.
Davutoglu said he also held embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad responsible because Assad and his government have acknowledged on a number of occasions that they provide arms to the YPG. Recent advances by the YPG in the northern countryside of the province have come at the expense of Syrian rebels — backed by Turkey and, in some instances, the United States, who have been fighting an increasingly desperate battle for survival in the face of punishing Russian airstrikes. Government loyalist forces comprised chiefly of Iranian-backed Shiite militias from Lebanon have seized territory closer to the city of Aleppo, while the YPG has pushed into areas closer to the Turkish border.
The charges against Syrian Kurds will also further complicate Turkey’s fraught relationship with the United States, which has partnered with the YPG in the fight against the Islamic State in Syria and has refused Turkish entreaties to abandon the alliance. The Kurds are now threatening to seize the strategically vital Syrian border town of Azaz, which Erdogan warned earlier this week would be a “red line” for Turkey. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned Turkey against sending troops to Syria, saying that “any invasion into the territory of a sovereign state is illegal.”
“It is out of the question for us to excuse tolerance toward a terrorist organization that targets our people in our capital,” Davutoglu said, in an apparent reference toward tensions with Washington. The United States has appealed in the past week to Turkey to stop its shelling of the advancing Kurdish forces, and to the YPG to halt its advances, without effect.
There has been no claim of responsibility for Wednesday’s attack, which struck a bus full of members of Turkey’s military as it paused at a traffic light in a central Ankara neighborhood that houses the nation’s parliament and government headquarters, according to Turkey’s official Anadolu News Agency. In addition to the deaths, at least 61 people were injured in the fireball that engulfed the bus and ignited trees in a nearby park at the height of the evening rush hour. In Washington, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said U.S. support for the YPG does not mean that the United States backs the YPG groups advancing toward Azaz, which he suggested may belong to a different faction of the YPG.
Cemil Bayik, one of the top leaders of the PKK who lives in northern Iraq, said he didn’t know who had carried out the bombing but speculated that it may have been “an act of retaliation for the massacres in Kurdistan” — a reference to a brutal military campaign being waged by Turkey’s military against Kurds in southeastern Turkey. “There are various parts of the YPG on the ground in Syria. And the ones. . . that we’re supporting are actually not the same groups,” Toner said.
The PKK has in the past frequently targeted military convoys and off-duty military personnel and the attacks have intensified as the Turkish military has stepped up its campaign. A bombing against a military vehicle on Thursday in southeastern Diyarbakir killed six people, the Turkish military said. “Obviously, they’re part of the same organization, but not these ones who are taking territory in and around Aleppo. . . . The groups that we’ve been supporting through airstrikes, through various means, have actually continued to effectively fight ISIL on the ground in northern Syria,” he said, referring to the Islamic State.
“These different groups may be taking advantage of the situation,” Toner added.
Turkey’s options are constrained by the strong presence of the Russian air force in the area and by the restrictions of Turkish membership in the NATO alliance. Russia has repeatedly warned Turkey that it intends to exact vengeance for the downing of a Russian plane that strayed into Turkish airspace in November. Turkey’s NATO allies are obliged to come to its defense only if it comes under attack, not if it embarks on unilateral action.
Wednesday’s bombing in Ankara also coincided with a massive Turkish military crackdown against Kurdish communities in the southeast of the country that has killed hundreds, displaced hundreds of thousands and turned cities and towns into war zones.
Cemil Bayik, a PKK leader who lives in northern Iraq, said he did not know who had carried out the bombing. But he told a Turkish news agency that it may have been “an act of retaliation for the massacres in Kurdistan” — a reference to the brutal military campaign.
The PKK has frequently targeted military convoys and off-duty military personnel, and its attacks have intensified as the Turkish military has stepped up its onslaught against the Kurds. A bombing against a military vehicle on Thursday in southeastern Diyarbakir province killed six people, according to the Turkish military.
Turkish warplanes carried out fresh raids overnight against PKK bases in northern Iraq, a frequent retaliatory target of Turkish airstrikes.Turkish warplanes carried out fresh raids overnight against PKK bases in northern Iraq, a frequent retaliatory target of Turkish airstrikes.
Michael Birnbaum in Moscow contributed to this report.
Read more:Read more:
Turkish opposition to Syrian Kurds complicates Western strategiesTurkish opposition to Syrian Kurds complicates Western strategies
Biden decries Turkish political crackdownsBiden decries Turkish political crackdowns
Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the worldToday’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world