Turkey claims Ankara suicide bomber is a Syrian member of the Kurdish YPG

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that Turkey will continue fighting against all terror organizations and claimed that the YPG carried out the attack in cooperation with the PKK.

By MAAYAN GROISMAN
Updated: FEBRUARY 18, 2016 15:06
Turkey's Erdogan says Syrian Kurdish PYD behind Ankara attacks
Turkish security authorities identified the suicide bomber who carried out the Ankara blast Wednesday night as Salih Necar, a Syrian national who was a member of the Kurdish YPG and entered Turkey as a refugee, Turkish media reported on Thursday.
On Wednesday, 28 people were killed by a car bomb targeting military vehicles that were travelling near the Turkish parliament building in the heart of the Turkish capital Ankara. According to the pro-governmental Turkish newspaper Yeni Safak, the car used in the attack had been rented out in the Turkish city of Izmir two weeks ago.
Turkish security officials claimed on Thursday that the 24-year-old Syrian-born terrorist entered Turkey from the ISIS-controlled province of Deir ez-Zor. Following the attack, Turkish intelligence prohibited spreading information related to the blast and to Salih Necar on social networks, which it also did after the terror attack near the Sultan Ahmed in January.
Speaking on Thursday, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that Turkey will continue fighting against all terror organizations and claimed that the YPG carried out the attack in cooperation with PKK militants in Turkey. Responding to Davutoglu's accusations, Kurdistan Workers Party, the PKK, said that they do not know who stands behind the bombing.
The Turkish establishment alleges that the YPG committed the Ankara blast in order to force Turkey to stop shelling the Kurdish militias in Syria. The fact that the political wing of the PKK, the HDP, refused on Thursday to sign a joint statement of all Turkish parties condemning the Ankara attacks only reinforces the Turkish suspicions.
Even though Turkish officials are certain that the attacker was a YPG member, there is also a possibility that he operated on ISIS' behalf. While the PKK tends to target the Turkish military forces, the lethality of the suicide attack in Ankara characterizes ISIS suicide operations.
Nevertheless, the Kurds in Turkey claim that the Turkish National Intelligence Agency (the MIT) is responsible for the blast, arguing that it knew the attacker from the time he arrived in the state. According to Kurdish activists, the MIT planned the attack in order to justify a possible ground invasion of the Kurdish corridor in northern Syria, a scenario that the US has rejected thus far.