Kurdish militants killed 28 in bomb attacks

Turkey: 17 in custody after buses targeted

A Kurdish militant group has claimed responsibility for a car bomb attack in the Turkish capital which killed 28 people.

In a statement posted on its website, the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons group said it carried out the attack in Ankara to avenge Turkish military operations against Kurdish rebels in south-east Turkey.

The Turkey-based group is an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.

Ankara had blamed a US-backed Syrian Kurdish militia group for the attack, saying it acted in collaboration with the PKK.

Turkish authorities earlier detained three more suspects in connection with the bombing.

The Anadolu news agency said authorities have taken 17 people into custody as partof the investigation into Wednesday’s suicide carbombing, which targeted buses carrying military personnel.

The arrests came as Turkey’s military pushed ahead with an artillery shelling campaign against US-backed Syrian Kurdish militia positions in Syria.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said three of the detained suspects are believed to have played “an active part” in the attack.

The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons, also known as TAK, named the bomber as Abdulbaki Sonmez.

“This act was to avenge the massacre of civilians,” the group said.

The group threatened further attacks in Turkey. Most recently, TAK had claimed a mortar attack in December at Istanbul’s second airport that killed a cleaner. It said it was in retaliation for military action against the PKK.

GRIEVING: People pray yesterday at a funeral of one of the victims of the terrorist attack

Mourners pay their respects to the dead

Turkish prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu, centre, prays at a funeral