The Kurdish Freedom Falcons (TAK), an offshoot of the separatist group PKK, claimed responsibility for a car bomb attack in the Turkish capital city that claimed the lives of at least 35 people.
The bombing in Ankara on Sunday was the work of a female suicide car bomber.
Who are the Kurdish people?
Before Thursday, the interior ministry officials identified the suicide bomber as Seher Cagla Demir, saying she is believed to have received training from the Syria-based Kurdish rebels known as the YPG.
In the statement on its website, TAK confirmed Demir led a team of attackers, referring to her as “our comrade.”
Ally or foe?
Turkey and the United States consider the PKK to be a terrorist organization, but the two NATO allies have been at loggerheads over the classification of the Syria-based YPG. While Turkey views the group as an extension of the PKK and therefore a terrorist organization, the United States sees the group as one of its most reliable and effective allies in the fight against ISIS in Syria. From time to time, Turkish artillery have fired across the border at YPG positions in Syria.
n February, TAK claimed a previous bombing just a few hundred meters away that killed 30 people. In that bombing, the government released the identity of the attacker as a Turkish citizen who also traveled to Syria and apparently re-entered the country posing as a Kurdish Syrian refugee.
Opinion: A new era of Kurdish politics for Turkey?
After the bombing on Sunday, the Turkish military hit targets in Northern Iraq in the Qandil Mountains where the PKK maintains a presence.
Security forces and the PKK have been fighting in provinces in southeastern Turkey since a ceasefire fell apart over the summer.
Some towns have been under curfew with military operations to clear out what the government calls terrorists. But critics argue the heavy handed operations are collective punishment and security forces have been acting with impunity killing civilians. – CNN
