DNA evidence
shows that the culprit behind a deadly blast in Ankara was
Turkish-born, not Syrian as initially claimed by Turkish authorities,
says a security official.
Last
Wednesday, a car bomb went off next to several military buses near
Turkey’s armed forces base in Ankara, killing 29 people. The
following day Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu laid the blame
for the incident on a Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG)
fighter, Salih Necar, hailing from the northeastern Syrian city of
Hasakah.
However, the
Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK) group claimed responsibility for the
blast on its website on February 19.
On Tuesday,
a senior Turkish security official, citing DNA evidence collected
from the blast site, stated that Abdulbaki Somer, born in the eastern
Turkish city of Van, was the bomber. The announcement fully
corresponds with claims made by TAK.
“The
DNA report has been published. We saw that it was not Necar,”
the Turkish official told Reuters on condition of anonymity as the
report is yet to be made public. “The bomber's DNA matches that
of Abdulbaki's father. It looks like the bomber was Abdulbaki Somer,
that's what the report is saying,” he said.
According to
Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency, prosecutors have confirmed
the report.
Turkey
regards the YPG and its political arm, the Democratic Union Party
(PYD), as allies of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has
been fighting for an autonomous Kurdish region inside Turkey since
the 1980s.
The leader
of the YPG has denied being behind the attack, saying Turkey is using
the Ankara blast as a pretext to escalate its attacks in Syria.
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