Even though no group has claimed responsibility for the deadly weekend bombings in Ankara, the focus of the investigation is the militant group ISIS,Turkey’s prime minister said.
The Saturday attack near Ankara’s main train station was carried out by two suicide bombers. It killed at least 97 people and wounded nearly 250 others.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu wouldn’t specifically identify any group for the act, but he told Turkish television station NTV the focus is on ISIS.
The blasts targeted crowds at a lunchtime peace rally calling for an end to the renewed conflict between the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Turkish government.
Kurdish forces have been battling ISIS jihadists across a swath of northern Iraq and Turkey and the Turkish government recently changed its stance to allow the U.S. to launch strikes on the militant group’s positions from Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey.
‘Attack on entire nation’
The huge explosions shook high-rise office buildings and left bodies, protest banners and flags scattered across the ground.
The attack took place just three weeks before national elections.
“This is an attack that does not target a specific group; it is an attack on the entire nation and (an) attack on our unity. Turkey is a country that has managed to maintain peace in the region,” Davutoglu said Saturday.
Turkey declared three days of mourning over the attacks.
Scuffles with police near scene of bombings
On Sunday, people once again massed in Ankara’s streets, this time expressing solidarity with the victims.
One group in the capital, some of whom were carrying red flowers to commemorate the dead, tried to reach the scene of the blasts.
But the group, whose members included opposition lawmakers, were blocked by police officers. Scuffles broke out, and police fired tear gas into the air.
Kurdish-linked rallies attacked previously
Rallies involving Kurdish groups in Turkey have been hit by bombings three times this year. A suicide attack in the town of Suruc, near the Syrian border, in July killed 34 people. A supporter of the Islamic extremist group ISIS was blamed for carrying out that attack, but the group never claimed responsibility.
Those taking part in Saturday’s rally included the pro-Kurdish HDP, or Peoples’ Democratic Party, which said on Twitter two of its parliamentary candidates were killed in the blasts.
Turkish forces continued their campaign against the PKK over the weekend, killing as many as 49 members of the group in airstrikes on Saturday and Sunday, the semiofficial Turkish news agency Anadolu reported, citing military sources.
The PKK is a militant group that has fought a long and bitter separatist campaign against the Turkish state for more than 30 years. Since the collapse of a ceasefire in July 2015, more than 2,000 PKK fighters and 150 Turkish security personnel have been killed in renewed hostilities, Anadolu report said.