Car Bomb Attackers Detonate Themselves Up Near Ankara
MEP: Two terrorists have detonated a car bomb during a police operation in the Turkish capital of Ankara on Saturday.
According to Ankara’s governor, Ercan Topaca, security forces launched the operation against the militants at a farm some 30 kilometers (18 miles) from the capital on a tip-off from Diyarbakir, the main city in mostly-Kurdish southeastern Turkey. He confirmed there were at least two suspects, one of them a female. They were both identified.
The blast did not hurt anyone else in the area, Topaca said.
Mr Topaca added the assailants are thought to be linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, which has carried out a series of suicide car bombings over the past year.
CNN Turk reported the bombers were in possession of plastic explosives and 200 kilograms of ammonium nitrate and that a third person was being sought.
Police also found an identity card at the scene that is believed to have belonged to one of the assailants. According to the card, he was from the southeastern province of Bingol and authorities believe he had links to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
“They were going to use a car that was bought two days ago. They even placed a flag of Turkey on the car,” Topaca noted.
Ankara has been targeted by PKK car bombs twice in the past year resulting in nearly 70 deaths. In addition, more than a 100 died when Daesh-linked suicide bombers targeted a peace rally in the capital in October last year.
