Increased military presence, tanks, helicopters and armoured cars have been deployed in Turkey’s capital of Ankara following deadly fights between Turkish security forces and Kurdish militants spreading across the country. Fighting has escalated after the car bombing on Sunday that devastated the capital’s busy transport hub.
No group has come forth to claim the shocking suicide bombing, that killed 37 people, however security officials are blaming outlawed group the PKK.
The PKK or the Kurdistan Workers’ Party is an organisation begun in the 1970s, part of a radical left wing movement aimed at establishing fully independent Kurdistan states in the Kurdish areas of Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran.
Turkey’s military forces responded to the bombing with attacks on PKK bases in Iraq’s mountains and Kurdish areas of Turkey. Reuters has reported that in the area of Diyarbakir a curfew has been imposed from 3 a.m. (0100 GMT) and militants were seen setting up barricades, digging ditches and planting explosives.
So far authorities from Turkey’s military claim they have killed 45 PKK militants and destroyed two weapon depots in their strikes following Sunday’s bombing attack.
