Four held for Ankara bombing

FOUR people believed to be linked to the car-bomb attack that killed 37 people in Ankara have been detained near the Syria border by Turkish police. A woman member of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) had been singled out as one of the suspected bombers, security officials said yesterday. Nobody has claimed responsibility yet for the attack on Sunday – the third on the capital in five months. The bomb tore through a crowded transport hub a few hundred metres from the Justice and Interior ministries. Violence has spiralled in Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeast since a 2½-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.

Turkish warplanes bombed camps belonging to the PKK in northern Iraq early yesterday, the army said. A round-the-clock curfew was also imposed in the southeastern town of Sirnak, the provincial governor’s office said. The explosives were the same as those used in a February 17 attack that killed 29 people – mostly soldiers – and the bomb had been packed with pellets and nails, to cause maximum damage, a police source said. Islamic State militants have been blamed for at least four bomb attacks on Turkey since June, including a suicide bombing that killed 10 German tourists in the heart of Istanbul in January. 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.