AMN /
A Turkey-based Kurdish militant group has claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s suicide bomb attack in Ankara. The Kurdisdan Freedom Falcons issued a statement Friday to say they carried out the Car bombing to avenge Turkish military operations against Kurdish civilians.
The group says the bomber was a man born in eastern Turkey. The attack killed 28 people, including Turkish soldiers.
The militants earlier claimed responsibility for a bombing at an Istanbul airport in December. Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu previously identified the suicide bomber as a Syrian national and laid the blame on a Syrian Kurdish militia group known as YPG.
Turkish forces continued cross-border shelling against YPG in retaliation.
Conflicting accounts
The official account, provided by the Turkish government, blamed the attacks on the YPG, a different Kurdish group based in Syria. The YPG is the key Western ally in the fight against the “Islamic State” (IS) group.
“We have no doubt that the perpetrators are the YPG and PYD,” Prime Minister Erdogan said earlier on Friday, referring to the Syrian Kurdish militia and their political wing.
The Ankara claims, however, were met with skepticism from the US. In addition, the YPG denied any involvement, saying the government wanted to create a pretext to send their troops to northern Syria.
“The first thing they did after the attack was to blame us,” YPG spokesman Redur Xelil told the pro-Kurdish Firat agency.