On Thursday morning a bomb detonated by remote control hit security forces travelling in a military vehicle on a road linking Diyarbakir to the district of Lice. The military said six people died and one was seriously injured, the Guardian reported.
Ahmet Davutoğlu, Turkey’s prime minister, alleged that Wednesday’s attack was perpetrated by a Syrian Kurdish fighter with links to the People’s Protection Units (YPG), a Kurdish militia that has been fighting Daesh (ISIL) in northern Syria. The outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK) assisted with the attack, Davutoğlu said.
“We collected intelligence all night,” Davutoğlu told reporters in Ankara. “The perpetrators have been fully identified. The attack was carried out by YPG member Salih Necar, who came in from Syria.”
Fourteen people have been held in connection with the attack.
The Turkish government has lashed out at its western allies, foremost the US, over their refusal to designate the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union (PYD) and its armed wing, the YPG, as a terrorist organization.
The head of the PYD denied allegations that it or the YPG was involved. “We have never heard of this person Salih Necar,” Saleh Muslim said. “These accusations are clearly related to Turkish attempts to intervene in Syria.”
Wednesday’s car bomb detonated when a convoy of military buses carrying dozens of soldiers stopped at traffic lights in central Ankara, sparking panic and chaos. Plumes of smoke could be seen from all over the city rising from the scene, close to the headquarters of the Turkish military and the parliament. The powerful blast was heard throughout Ankara, sending alarmed residents rushing to their balconies.
Ankara has been on high alert since October, when 103 people were killed in a suicide attack on a crowd of peace activists, the bloodiest attack in the country’s modern history. Last month 11 people were killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up in the tourist heart of Turkey’s biggest city, Istanbul.