Kurdish militants claim Ankara bombing, warns foreign tourists

ISTANBUL: A Kurdish militant group on Friday claimed the suicide car bomb attack on a military convoy in the Turkish capital Ankara that killed 28 people, threatening new attacks targeting the crucial tourism sector.

The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), who have been linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), said the attack was revenge for operations by the Turkish military in the southeast of the country and warned foreign tourists not to visit Turkey.

“On February 17 in the evening a suicide attack was carried out by a sacrifice warrior on a military convoy of the fascist Turkish Republic in Ankara... The attack was realised by the Immortal Battalion of the TAK,” the TAK said in a statement on their website.

Wednesday’s attack struck at the heart of Ankara in an area where institutions including the army headquarters and parliament are concentrated. It was one of the deadliest attacks on the Turkish military in recent years.

Ankara has insisted that the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and Democratic Union Party (PYD) were behind the attack, although its claims have met with scepticism from chief Nato ally the US.

The YPG and PYD deny accusations from Ankara that they are branches of the PKK and have rejected having any involvement in the attack.

The TAK named the suicide bomber as Zinar Raper in born in 1989 in Turkey’ s Kurdishdominated eastern region of Van, who had been involved with the Kurdish ‘freedom struggle’ and since 2011 with the TAK.

The TA K’ s claim of the bomber’ s identity is in contradiction to Prime Minister Ah met Davu to g lu who said the bomber was a Syrian national YPG operative.

In an additional Englishlanguage statement the TAK warned it aims to ‘destroy’ tourism in Turkey.

“We warn the foreign and native tourists not go to the touristic areas in Turkey. — AFP