Ankara rocked by fatal explosion UPDATES

[Anthea]

Guardian

Turkish capital Ankara rocked by fatal explosion

Blast rips through bus in Kizilay neighbourhood, killing at least 27 people

An explosion has ripped through a transit hub in Ankara, killing at least 27 people and wounding 75, the city’s governor has reportedly confirmed.

The large explosion appears to have engulfed a bus and several cars, near to Güvenpark, in the Kizilay neighbourhood of the Turkish capital on Sunday evening.

The office of Ankara’s governor said at least 27 people had been killed in the blast, Associated Press reported. A security official also said the explosion was likely to have been caused by a suicide car bombing.

Pictures posted on social media immediately after the incident appeared to show a bus almost completely destroyed, and several nearby vehicles on fire. Police have closed the area and emergency services are responding to the incident.

A reporter at the scene for HaberTurk said: “The explosion occurred on Atatürk Boulevard at a place where there are 10 bus stations.

“There is a vehicle that is mostly destroyed. It is impossible to give any numbers of those who were wounded, but there are many and burning cars.”

The Turkish government has reportedly ordered a media blackout on the blast, with locals unable to access Facebook or Twitter.

Less than a month ago a car bomb killed 29 people and wounded at least 60 others in Ankara. A militant Kurdish group subsequently claimed responsibility for the attack.

Details still coming in:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/m ... ey-reports

[Londoner]

I wouldn't drop a tear.

This morning on RT tv I saw what they have done to jzere. it is completely destroyed and depopulated. You feel you see a destroyed city in Syria.

[Anthea]

Reuters

Car bomb kills at least 32 in Turkish capital Ankara

A car bomb tore through a crowded transport hub in the Turkish capital of Ankara on Sunday, killing at least 32 people and wounding at least 75 more, the second such attack in the administrative heart of the city in less than a month.

The blast, which could be heard several kilometres away, sent burning debris showering down over an area a few hundred metres from the Justice and Interior Ministries, a top courthouse, and the former office of the prime minister.

Police helicopters hovered overhead as a large cloud of smoke rose over the city centre.

"A total of 27 of our citizens were killed when a car exploded at Kizilay's Guven Park, and close to 75 of our wounded citizens were taken to various hospitals for treatment," the Ankara governor's office said in a statement.

Two security officials later said the death toll had risen to 32 people.

One senior security official told Reuters initial findings suggested the attack had been carried out by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) or an affiliated militant group, but there was no immediate claim of responsibility. A second official said gunfire was heard after the blast.

Another official said the car used in the attack was a BMW which had been driven from Viransehir, a town in the largely Kurdish southeast. The PKK and the Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK) appeared to be responsible, he said.

TAK claimed responsibility for the previous car bombing, just a few blocks away on Feb. 17. That bombing killed 29 people, most of them soldiers, near the military headquarters, parliament and other key government institutions.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu held an emergency meeting with the interior minister, the head of the intelligence agency and police and security chiefs, officials said. President Tayyip Erdogan spoke by phone with the interior minister.

The pro-Kurdish opposition HDP, parliament's third largest party, which Erdogan accuses of being an extension of the PKK, condemned what it described as a "savage attack".

An Ankara court ordered a ban on access to Facebook (FB.O), Twitter (TWTR.N) and other sites in Turkey after images from the bombing were shared on social media, broadcasters CNN Turk and NTV reported.

State broadcaster TRT said the car had exploded at a major transport hub, hitting a bus carrying some 20 people near the central Guven Park and Kizilay Square. It said the area was crowded when the explosion happened at 6:43 p.m. (1643 GMT).

European leaders condemned the bombing. British Prime Minister David Cameron said he was "appalled". French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault described it as a "cowardly attack".

SECURITY THREATS

NATO member Turkey faces multiple security threats. As part of a U.S.-led coalition, it is fighting Islamic State in neighbouring Syria and Iraq. It is also battling PKK militants in its southeast, where a 2 1/2-year ceasefire collapsed last July, triggering the worst violence since the 1990s.

Turkey sees the unrest in its largely Kurdish southeast as deeply linked to events in northern Syria, where the Kurdish YPG militia has been seizing territory as it fights both Islamic State and rebels battling President Bashar al-Assad.

Ankara fears those gains will stoke separatist ambitions among its own Kurds and has long argued that the YPG and PKK have close ideological and operational ties.

In its armed campaign in Turkey, the PKK has historically struck directly at the security forces and says that it does not target civilians. A claim of responsibility for Sunday's bombing would indicate a major tactical shift.

The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks, or TAK, which claimed responsibility for the Feb. 17 attack, was once affiliated with PKK but says it has split from the group.

The U.S. embassy issued a warning on March 11 that there was information regarding a potential attack on government buildings in the Bahcelievler area of Ankara, several kilometres away from the site of Sunday's blast.

Islamic State militants have carried out at least four bomb attacks on Turkey since June 2015, including a suicide bombing which killed 10 German tourists in the historic heart of Istanbul in January. Local jihadist groups and leftist radicals have also staged attacks in the NATO member country in the past.

(Additional reporting by Ayla Jean Yackley and Humeyra Pamuk in Istanbul, Dominique Vidalon in Paris; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by David Dolan, Larry King)

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-turke ... SKCN0WF0PP

[Anthea]

UPDATE

Turkey says at least 34 dead in the Ankara car bombing attack

128 are wounded, including

19 in critical condition.

[Anthea]

I wouldn't drop a tear.

This morning on RT tv I saw what they have done to jzere. it is completely destroyed and depopulated. You feel you see a destroyed city in Syria.

I have seen the pictures

The Turkish regime is brutal and Turks are SAVAGES

[Londoner]

I wouldn't drop a tear.

This morning on RT tv I saw what they have done to jzere. it is completely destroyed and depopulated. You feel you see a destroyed city in Syria.

I have seen the pictures

The Turkish regime is brutal and Turks are SAVAGES

They taste their own medicine

[Anthea]

They taste their own medicine

Sadly true

My friend says that TAK have claimed responsibility

Cannot confirm but source is generally correct

It is time to admit there is an actual civil war taking place in Turkey

The only solution is an Independent Kurdistan

[Anthea]

Independent

Turkey explosion: Police say one of Ankara suicide bombers was a woman after attack kills at least 36 people

Huge car bomb is third blast to strike capital within six months and fuels fears of dangerous instability in Turkey

A huge car bomb has hit the Turkish capital, claiming the lives of at least 34 people and wounding dozens more.

The blast was the third to strike Ankara in less than six months. It will fuel fears that Turkey, which shares a border with Syria and is gripped by an internal conflict against Kurdish militias, is becoming dangerously unstable.

A car loaded with explosives detonated near a group of civilians at a bus stop in the central Kizilay district on Sunday shortly before 7pm local time in a suicide attack, the Turkish Interior Minister said. Police said one of the bombers was a woman.

The area is near a park, a metro station, a shopping centre and dozens of cafés. A courthouse and the justice and interior ministries are nearby. Footage from the aftermath of the blast showed mangled cars strewn across the busy main road and rescue workers running with stretchers. Turkey’s Health Minister said that 125 people were wounded, 19 of them seriously.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility, but Turkish officials told Reuters that initial findings suggested the attack had been carried out by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) or an affiliated group. In what has become a familiar pattern in Turkey, authorities imposed a nationwide ban on reporting details of the incident. Social media users also reported being unable to access Twitter and Facebook.

Turkey’s Prime Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, held an emergency cabinet meeting after the bombing with the Interior Minister, the head of the intelligence agency and police and security chiefs. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed that his country’s fight against terrorism would be successful, adding: “Terror will be brought to its knees.”

Turkey has been on high alert after a series of recent attacks by an array of groups in Istanbul, Ankara and in the south-east, where a 30-year conflict between the state and Kurdish militias was reignited last summer.

On Friday, the United States embassy warned citizens that there was a potential plot to attack government buildings in the Bahcelievler area of the city, about two miles from the blast.

The attack on the capital came less than a month after a car bombing on a military convoy killed 30 people just a few minutes’ walk from the bombing. That attack was claimed by the Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK), which described it as a “suicide revenge mission” for military operations in the town of Cizre. The town is one of several in Turkey’s south-eastern region to have witnessed heavy clashes between Turkish security forces and the PKK, which says it is fighting for greater autonomy for the Kurdish minority.

The latest flare-up in the conflict began last summer and has been focused on urban centres, forcing tens of thousands from their homes and trapping civilians in the middle. Turkish authorities announced that the towns of Yuksekova and Nusaybin would go into an indefinite 24-hour lockdown as security forces prepared to launch operations.

In January, 13 tourists were killed in a suicide bombing near Istanbul’s famous Blue Mosque in an attack blamed on a Syrian member of Isis.

In October, 103 people were killed when two suicide bombers detonated their vests in the middle of a peace rally in Ankara in another Isis attack. It was preceded by two other attacks blamed on the group in the south-eastern towns of Diyarbakir and Suruc, which killed a total of 37 people.

The latest bombing will cause deep alarm in Western capitals where Turkey, a Nato member, has long been seen as an important buffer zone between Europe and the turmoil in Syria, Iraq and beyond.

The European Union sees Turkey as a key partner in its plan to stem the flow of refugees and migrants.

Turkey is also facing a time of increased political tensions. President Erdogan has presided over a crackdown on media, civil society and the judiciary, prompting critics to warn that he is taking an increasingly authoritarian turn.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 29581.html

[Anthea]

Reuters

One of Ankara bombers was female PKK member - Turkish security sources
By Orhan Coskun

ANKARA A female member of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) was one of two suspected perpetrators of a car bombing that killed 37 people in the Turkish capital Ankara, security officials said on Monday.

Sunday's attack, tearing through a crowded transport hub a few hundred metres (yards) from the Justice and Interior Ministries, was the second such strike at the administrative heart of the city in under a month.

Evidence has been obtained that one of the bombers was a female member of the PKK who joined the militant group in 2013, the security officials told Reuters. She was born in 1992 and from the eastern Turkish city of Kars, they said.

Violence has spiralled in Turkey's predominantly Kurdish southeast since a 2-1/2 year ceasefire with the PKK collapsed in July. But the militants, who say they are fighting for Kurdish autonomy, have largely focused attacks on the security forces in southeastern towns, many of which have been under curfew.

Attacks in Ankara and in Istanbul over the last year, and the activity of Islamic State as well as Kurdish fighters, have raised concerns among NATO allies who see Turkey's stability as vital to the containment of violence across its borders in Syria and Iraq. President Tayyip Erdogan is also eager to dispel any notion he is struggling to maintain security

"With the power of our state and wisdom of our people, we will dig up the roots of this terror network which targets our unity and peace," Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Twitter.

Turkish warplanes bombed camps belonging to the PKK in northern Iraq early on Monday, the army said. A round-the-clock curfew was also imposed in the southeastern town of Sirnak in order to conduct operations against Kurdish militants there, the provincial governor's office said.

Turkey's government sees the unrest in its southeast as closely tied to the war in Syria, where a Kurdish militia has seized territory along the Turkish border as it battles Islamic State militants and rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad.

The government fears those gains are stoking Kurdish separatist ambitions at home and says Syrian Kurdish fighters share deep ideological and operational ties with the PKK. They also complicate relations with the United States which sees the Syrian Kurds as an important ally in battling Islamic State.

BOMB PACKED WITH NAILS

A police source said hours after the explosion that there appeared to have been two attackers, a man and a woman, whose severed hand was found 300 metres from the blast site.

The explosives were the same kind as those used in a Feb. 17 attack that killed 29 people, mostly soldiers, and the bomb had been packed with pellets and nails to cause maximum injury and damage, the source told Reuters.

The government has said it expects to officially identify the organisation behind the attack later on Monday.

As part of a U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State in neighbouring Syria and Iraq, Turkey faces multiple security threats.

Islamic State militants have been blamed for at least four bomb attacks on Turkey since June 2015, including a suicide bombing that killed 10 German tourists in the historic heart of Istanbul in January. Local jihadist groups and leftist radicals have also staged attacks in Turkey in the past.

There was little immediate reaction on financial markets, with the lira only slightly weaker against the dollar. But analysts said the deteriorating security situation was a concern for a country heavily dependent on tourism.

"It is clear that Turkey's political risk profile is rising gradually and the country is not yet safe for long-term investors," Atilla Yesilada of Istanbul-based consultancy Global Source Partners said in a note to clients.

In its armed campaign in Turkey, the PKK has historically struck directly at the security forces and says it does not target civilians. A direct claim of responsibility for Sunday's bombing would indicate a major tactical shift.

The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK) claimed responsibility for the previous car bombing, just a few blocks away, on Feb. 17. TAK says it has split from the PKK, although experts who study Kurdish militants say the two organisations are affiliated.

(Reporting by Asli Kandemir in Istanbul; Writing by Daren Butler and David Dolan; Editing by Nick Tattersall and Ralph Boulton)

http://in.reuters.com/article/turkey-bl ... NKCN0WG0P3