Bombings in Turkey

In Turkey’s capital, Ankara, on Feb. 17, a car bomb detonated next to a military convoy, killing 28 people and injuring more than 60. The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK), a militant Kurdish separatist group, claimed responsibility for the attack. TAK was previously allied with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a political Kurdish group, but was disavowed for their extremist actions.
On Feb. 18, a second military convoy was hit by a car bomb in southeastern Turkey, killing eight people. Turkish authorities blamed Kurdish separatists for that bomb as well.
A TAK spokesperson said that the Ankara bombing was in response to Turkey’s military shelling of Kurdish positions across the border in Syria. Kurdish forces control much of Syria’s border with Turkey.