PHOTO: Scene of a car bombing in central Ankara on Wednesday
UPDATE FEB 18, 1900 GMT: Turkish artillery is shelling Kurdish positions throughout northern Aleppo Province.
Targeted areas reportedly include the center of the Afrin canton, Menagh airbase, the recently-captured town of Tal Rifaat, and a series of villages.
UPDATE FEB 18, 1700 GMT: The leading Syrian rebel faction Jaish al-Islam has issued a statement of support to the Turkish Government.
Declaring that “Turkey was and still is a safe haven for the vulnerable, oppressed, and homeless”, Jaish al-Islam said:
[We] condemn and denounce this cowardly terrorist attack, and [we] stand by the Turkish Government and its people in facing such vicious attacks which are carried on by some parties, whose links to the intelligence apparatuses of some regional countries are no longer secret.
UPDATE FEB 18, 1155 GMT: Television journalist Gülşen Yıldız was among those killed in Wednesday’s Ankara car bombing:
UPDATE FEB 18, 1055 GMT: President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has joined Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in blaming the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Party (PYD) and its YPG militia for Wednesday’s Ankara bomb, saying that they were working with the Turkish Kurdish insurgency PKK.
“Although the PKK and the PYD are denying it, the information from the Interior Ministry and intelligence show that they are behind [the attack],” he declared.
During a visit to the Chief of Military Staff’s office, Erdoğan asserted, “This process will conduce our friends in the international community to understand how tight the PYD and YPG’s connection to the PKK is.”
He said that 14 people had been detained for the car bombing and that more detentions are expected.
UPDATE FEB 18, 1040 GMT: Six Turkish soldiers have been killed by a roadside bomb in the southeast of the country.
State-run Anadolu Agency said insurgents detonated the bomb on a road between the cities of Diyarbakir and Bingol as a military vehicle passed.
Another soldier was seriously wounded in the attack.
In a second attack, a soldier and a policeman were killed in Sirnak Province in southeastern Turkey.
UPDATE FEB 18, 1000 GMT: Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has blamed the Syrian Kurdish militia YPG and the Assad regime for Wednesday’s car bomb that killed at least 28 people and wounded 61 in Ankara.
“The YPG is a tool of the Syrian regime and the regime is directly responsible for this attack. The right to take all kinds of measures against the Syrian regime is reserved for us,” Davutoğlu said after a meeting with the General Staff of the Turkish military.
He claimed that the bombing was carried out with logistical support from the Turkish Kurdish insurgency PKK.
Davutoglu said 27 of the victims were members of the Turkish Armed Forces.
Salih Muslim, the head of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), which oversees the YPG militia, rejected Davutoglu’s claims, “We deny any involvement in this attack.”
He warned that any Turkish ground action in Syria will be confronted by a coalition of Kurdish and Arab fighters.
The Syrian Democratic Forces, led by the YPG and supported by the US, condemned the “inhuman act”:
On Tuesday, the Assad regime offered backing to the PYD through its UN Ambassador, Bashar al-Jaafari, following a closed-door Security Council session about Turkey’s shelling of YPG-occupied areas:
These Syrian Kurds supported by the American administration are also supported by the Syrian government.
The victory achieved in the northern part of Syria, both by the Syrian army and the Syrian Kurds, is a joint victory for all Syrians. Everybody is benefiting from the Syrian army’s direct support.
Meanwhile, Turkey’s military said warplanes struck PKK camps in the Haftanin region in northern Iraq, targeting 60 to 70 fighters included senior leaders.
UPDATE FEB 18, 0800 GMT: Turkish security sources have said the Ankara suicide bomber was a Syrian national.
The sources said Saleh Nejar is thought to have entered Turkey with refugees. He was identified by fingerprints taken when he entered the country.
UPDATE FEB 18, 0600 GMT: The death toll from the Ankara car bomb is now 28, with 61 wounded.
Cancelling a trip to Azerbaijan, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said in a statement on Wednesday night:
Our determination to retaliate to these attacks that target our unity and our future, in Turkey and abroad, are increasing with such actions.
Turkey’s losses in its struggle against terrorism are challenging its patience.
Erdogan said the Turkish nation would continue its struggle against “these pawns and powers behind them, every day, with determination”.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, who postponed a visit to the European Union in Brussels, asserted after a security meeting:
We will never step back from our righteous struggle against all terror organizations.
The state of the Turkish Republic will keep defending humanitarian values that will priorly protect its national security in the name of all without digressing from the line of law and justice and without compromising to terror and violence.
ORIGINAL ENTRY: At least 18 people have been killed and 45 wounded in a car bombing in the Turkish city of Ankara on Wednesday.
No one has claimed responsibility. However, Turkish officials said the explosion was an “act of terrorism”, and a “security official” said initial signs pointed to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Reports say buses carrying military personnel were targeted during evening rush hour as they arrived at a military housing facility in the city center. Twenty ambulances were sent to the location, close to Turkey’s Parliament, the Prime Ministry, Government buildings, and military headquarters.
The army did not say how many military personnel were on board the buses.
