Bomb Blast Kills 37 In Turkish Capital

Turkish warplanes have struck Kurdish militant camps in Northern Iraq a day after a car bomb exploded in Ankara, an attack in which officials believe two fighters from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) are responsible.

The bomb blasts, which killed 37 and injured a further 135 when it exploded in a major transport area, was the third major bomb blast to hit Ankara in the last five months. 

Eyewitnesses claimed that a car, which was believed to have been a BMW, sped towards a bus stop before the driver detonated the bomb, creating a fireball of glass shrapnel and debris.

A police source said that there appeared to have been two attackers, one male and one female, whose severed hand was discovered hundreds of metres from the site of the bomb blast. 

Although no group has come forward and claimed responsibility Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu claimed that evidence ‘’almost certainly’’ pointed toward the Kurdish separatist group.

In response eleven warplanes carried out targeted airstrikes on 18 Kurdish targets in Northern Iraq including ammunition dumps and shelters. 

The latest in hostilities offers little hope of a resumption in peace talks following a two-year cease fire that fell apart during the middle of last year, reviving decades long fighting which has laid claim to more than 30,000 lives. 

Last October, a double suicide bombing killed over 100 people who were attending a Kurdish peace rally in Ankara, whilst just last month 28 people were killed and dozens more where wounded during a military convoy in Ankara. 

Strict 24-hour curfews were imposed in a number of Kurdish-dominated towns and cities to allow the military and police to pursue the fight against fighters who dug trenches and put up barricades. 

This article first appeared in Issue 4, 2016.
Posted 11:12am Sunday 20th March 2016 by Hugh Baird.