Car bomb kills dozens in Turkey’s capital
‘Well-planned’ attack during rush hour sets military buses ablaze
ANKARA, Turkey — A car bomb went off in the Turkish capital Wednesday near vehicles carrying military personnel, killing at least 28 people and wounding 61 others, officials said.
The explosion occurred during evening rush hour in the heart of An kara, in an area close to parliament and armed forces headquarters and lodgings.
Buses carrying military personnel were targeted while waiting at traffic lights at an intersection, the Turkish military said while condemning the “contemptible and dastardly” attack.
“We believe that those who lost their lives included our military brothers aswell as civilians,” Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said.
At least two military vehicles caught fire; dark smoke could be seen billowing from a distance. Dozens of ambulances were sent to the scene.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Kurtulmus pledged that authorities would find those behind the bombing. He said the government had appointed seven prosecutors to investigate the attack, which he described as being “well-planned.”
Kurdish rebels, the Islamic State group and a leftist extremist group have carried out attacks in the country recently. In October, suicide bombings blamed on ISIS targeted a peace rally outside the main train station in Ankara, killing 102 people in Turkey’s deadliest attack in years.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the bombing, saying it exceeds all “moral and humane boundaries .”
Turkey is determined to fight those who carried out the attack as well as the “forces” behind the assailants, he said.
“Our determination to retaliate to attacks that aim against our unity and future grows stronger with every action,” Erdogan said. “It must be known that Turkey will not refrain from using its right to self-defense at all times.”
Wednesday’s attack comes at a tense time as the Turkish government faces an array of challenges. A fragile peace process with Kurdish rebels collapsed in the summer, and renewed fighting has displaced of civilians.
Turkey has been supporting U.S.-led efforts to combat the Islamic State group in neighboring Syria and has faced several deadly bombings in the last year that were blamed on ISIS.
The Syrian war is raging along Turkey’s southern border. Recent airstrikes by Russian and Syrian forces have prompted tens of thousands more Syrian refugees to flee to Turkey’s border.
Turkey so far has refused to let them in, despite being urged to do so by the United Nations and European nations, but is sending aid to Syrian refugee camps right across the border.
Turkey, whichis already home to 2.5 million Syrian refugees, has also been akey focus of European Union efforts to halt the biggest flow of refugees to the continent since World War II. Hundreds, sometimes thousands, of refugees leave every night from Turkey to cross the sea to Greece in smugglers’ boats