Turkish PM sees ISIL or PKK links to Ankara bombing

ISTANBUL - Reuters

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Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu told Reuters on Oct. 14 some of the suspects in a suicide bombing that killed 97 people in Ankara had spent months in Syria and that they could be linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) or to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants.

"We are working on (investigating) two terrorist organisations, Daesh (ISIL) and PKK, because we have certain evidence regarding the suicide bombers having links with Daesh, but also some linkages with PKK groups," Davutoğlu said in an interview in Istanbul. 

"Some suspects were in Syria for many months." 

Davutoğlu said an investigation was underway into whether there had been intelligence and security failures in the run-up to Oct. 10 double suicide bombing in the heart of the capital, the worst attack of its kind on Turkish soil. 

He said Turkey had intelligence that militants from the PKK and leftist Revolutionary People's Liberation Army-Front (DHKP-C), which claimed an attack on the U.S. consulate in Istanbul in August, had been trained as suicide bombers in northern Iraq and sent to Turkey. 

Davutoğlu also said Turkey had the right to defend itself against growing risks emanating from Syria after Russia's military intervention.