29 Mar 2024
Thursday 18 February 2016 - 15:34
Story Code : 202380

Turkey signals escalating Syria attack

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu accuses the Syrian government of being directly responsible for a bombing in Ankara, saying Turkeywill continue to shell Kurdish positions inside the Arab country.

Davutoglu on Thursday said a member of the Syria Kurdish YPG militia working withPKK militants was behindthe Ankara bombing that killed 28 people a day before.The premier also accused Russia of using YPG against Turkey.

The leader of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party denied the accusation, sayingAnkara was making the allegation in order to escalate the conflict in Syria.

"We are completely refuting that," Saleh Muslim, co-chair ofthe PYD, told Reuters. He also denied claims that thegroup's armed YPG wing was firing into Turkey.

"I can assure youthat not even one bullet is fired by YPG into Turkey," Muslimsaid. "They don't consider Turkey as an enemy," he said.

On Thursday, abomb detonated byremote control killed seven Turkish security force memberstravelling in a military vehicle in southeast Turkey.

The blast hit the armored vehicle on the highway linkingDiyarbakir, the largest city in the mainly Kurdish southeast, tothe district of Lice.Sources had previously said the explosionhit a convoy of vehicles.

Davutoglu said26 of the 28 killed in the Ankara blast were soldiers.

Shortly after the bombing,Turkish warplanesbombed northern Iraq overnight,killing60-70 militants, including senior PKK figures, he added.

In a live television speech, Davutoglu said the Ankara bombingshowed that theYPG was a terrorist organizationand that Turkey expectedcooperation from its allies against the
group.

A car laden with explosives detonated next to the militarybuses as they waited at traffic lights near Turkey's armedforces' headquarters, parliament and government buildings in Ankara late on Wednesday.

The military described itas a terroristattack and a senior security source said initial signs indicatedmilitants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party(PKK) were responsible.

The co-leader of the PKK umbrella group, Cemil Bayik, saidhe did not know who was responsible but the attack could be aresponse to "massacres" in Turkey'sKurdish-populated regions.

By Press TV
https://theiranproject.com/vdcevw8w7jh87xi.1kbj.html
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