ERBIL, Kurdistan Region —Turkish police announced Friday that they have arrested a man in the southeastern province of Diyarbakir for his alleged involvement in a 2011 explosion in the capital city of Ankara. He is believed to be affiliated to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The suspect, who was only identified by police with the initials I.A., was arrested at his father’s house in the Kurdish-stonghold of Diyarbakir (Amed), reported Turkish state-owned Anadolu Agency (AA). The suspect is accused of orchestrating a car bombing that took place in Ankara on September 20, 2011. The attack killed at least three people and injured many others. After the incident, Turkish officials stated that it was “"highly likely to be a terrorist attack,” which is language commonly used by the government to refer to the activities of the PKK or Islamist militants. The former has clarified in the past that it only targets security forces in their military activities, sparing civilians. The PKK is a Kurdish armed group fighting for Kurdish cultural and political rights in Turkey for decades. The group is seen as a terrorist organization by Ankara and its Western allies. Turkey has conducted operations against the PKK at home and across its border with Iraq, Syria and Iran. It has intensified its bombardment against the group recently inside the Kurdistan Region, including near the PKK headquarters in the Qandil mountains. The Turkish defense ministry has accused the PKK and the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), of carrying out an attack in the rebel-controlled city of Afrin in northwest Syria on Tuesday, that killed at least 42 people. Kurdish officials denied their involvement in the explosion, slamming Turkey for accusing them without evidence. The YPG, which controls most of northeastern Syria as the backbone of the Kurdish-led and US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), is regarded by Turkey as the Syrian offshoot of the PKK. The group was ousted from the area, when Turkey and its proxy Syrian rebel factions took control in March 2018. Since then, there has been a series of attacks on Turkish targets in the area, as well as reports of violations by local human rights monitors.
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