Turkey is retaliating after 2 bombs targeting its military killed at least 34
Six Turkish security force members were also killed on Thursday, as a bomb detonated by remote control hit a military convoy in southeast Turkey, according to Reuters.
According to security sources, the convoy was hit on the highway linking Diyarbakir, the largest city in the mainly Kurdish southeast, to the district of Lice.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan rejected on Thursday the group's denials of responsibility. "Even though those who head the PYD and PKK say this has no connection with them, based on the information obtained by our interior minister and our intelligence agencies, it is identified that this is done by them," he said, according to Reuters.
He also announced that Turkey would continue to shell positions of the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia and that senior members of the PKK had been killed in air strikes on their camps in Iraq launched by Turkey late on Wednesday.
"In light of information we have obtained, it has been clearly identified that this attack has been carried out by the members of terrorist organisation inside Turkey together with a YPG member individual who has crossed from Syria," Davutoglu said. He also said nine people had been detained following the attack.
The Turkish military described the attack as a terrorist act and a senior security source told Reuters that initial signs indicated that Kurdish militants from the PKK were responsible.
Cemil Bayik, who is seen as close to the PKK, was quoted by the Turkish Firat news agency: "We don't know who did this. But it could be an act of retaliation for the massacres in Kurdistan." The Turkish government has been accused by Kurds of killing civilians and militants indiscriminately.
Moscow, whose relationship with Ankara has dramatically deteriorated since the downing by Turkish forces of a Russian jet in November, expressed its condolences to the people of Turkey following the deadly explosion. It said the terrorist act underlined the need for all countries to unite to fight international terrorism.
In Stockholm, an explosion on Wednesday severely damaged part of a building that housed a Turkish cultural association. No one was injured, police said, as everybody had left and the building had been locked up earlier in the evening.