Turkey Identifies One of Ankara Suicide Bombers
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Turkish authorities have confirmed the identity of one of two suicide bombers who blew themselves up outside Ankara's main train station on Oct. 10, killing 102 people, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Monday.
In an interview on Turkey's AHaber TV, Davutoglu said investigations into the second attacker were continuing, Reuters reported.
"A series of DNA tests have been carried out to identify the bombers, and one of them has been identified," Davutoglu said, without elaborating.
He said 15 people had been detained in connection with the bombing, four of whom had been remanded in custody.
Footage screened by broadcaster CNN Turk showed the a line of young men and women holding hands and dancing during a peace rally on Oct. 10, and then flinching as a large explosion flashed behind them, engulfing people carrying HDP and leftist party banners.
"Like other terror attacks, the one at the Ankara train station targets our unity, togetherness, brotherhood and future," said Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has vowed to crush a Kurdish militant insurgency since the collapse of a ceasefire and resumption of intense violence in July.
Witnesses said the two explosions happened seconds apart shortly after 10 am as crowds, including HDP activists, leftists, labour unions and other civic groups, gathered for a planned march to protest over the deaths of hundreds since conflict resumed between security forces and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in the mainly Kurdish southeast.