Death toll in Ankara bombing rises to 29

ANKARA

Carnations are left at the site of Wednesday's explosion in Ankara, Turkey, Monday, Feb. 22, 2016. AP Photo

The death toll from the deadly suicide bomb attack that targeted service vehicles carrying military personnel in the Turkish capital on Feb. 17 has risen to 29, after an elderly man who was injured in the attack died early on Feb. 23, the state-run Anadolu Agency has reported, citing sources from the Health Ministry.

A 66-year-old man, identified as Aydın Dede Hayır, succumbed to his injuries at a hospital in Ankara less than a week after he was injured in the bombing that killed 28 and wounded tens of others. A Turkish citizen now identified as Abdulbaki Sömer blew himself up in an area between a top military headquarters building and the Turkish parliament.

“The person who conducted the terror attack in Ankara entered Turkey from the PYD region and registered with an ID. It has been revealed as a PYD and PKK-linked act in cooperation, as a chain,” Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmuş told reporters after a cabinet meeting in Ankara on Feb. 22.

Kurtulmuş repeated the government’s claim that the attack was carried out jointly by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Democratic Union Party (PYD), which Turkey considers to be the PKK’s Syrian offshoot.

Meanwhile, Turkish police detained three more individuals with suspected links to the attack on Feb. 23, a day after 14 others were arrested on charges of “assisting a terrorist act” and “fabricating false state documents.”

The deadly Feb. 17 attack at the heart of Ankara was the second attack to hit the Turkish capital in less than five months, after alleged Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants bombed a large peace rally on Oct. 10, 2015, killing 102 people.