Militant violence: Car bombing kills 27 in Turkish capital

75 wounded in the explosion in key commercial and transport hub

ANKARA: An explosion ripped through a busy square in central Ankara on Sunday, killing at least 27 people and wounding 75 others, the provincial governor’s office said.

“The blast was caused by a vehicle packed with explosives close to Kizilay square,” an official statement said. The square is a key commercial and transport hub close to the city’s embassy area. Turkish television pictures showed several burnt-out vehicles, including a bus.

The incident comes just weeks after 29 people were killed in a suicide car bomb attack targeting the military in Ankara on February 17 that was claimed by a Kurdish militant group.

The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK) said it carried out the February bombing as revenge for operations by the Turkish military in the southeast of the country and warned foreign tourists not to visit Turkey.

Turkish security forces have been waging a major offensive against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) since December, imposing strict 24-hour curfews in a number of towns and cities in the southeast.

Sunday’s blast came as the  authorities hit two more towns in the Kurdish-dominated southeast with curfews.

Turkey has been hit by a spate of deadly attacks since the middle of last year, most of them blamed on the Islamic State group.

In the deadliest bombing ever on Turkish soil, 103 people were killed and more than 500 wounded in twin suicide bombings targeting a pro-Kurdish peace rally in Ankara in October last year.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 14^th, 2016.