Perpetrator of Ankara car bomb attack killed in operation in Diyarbakır
DİYARBAKIR – Anadolu Agency
AA photo
One of the perpetrators of the Feb. 17 car bomb attack in Ankara was killed in an operation in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır on June 30, security sources have said.Mehmet Şirin Kocakaya, codenamed Şirin, was killed during a joint operation by soldiers and police officers in the Lice district and its environs.
The bomber was identified as Abdulbaki Sömer, who entered Turkey with a fake Syrian identity showing his name as “Salih Muhammed Neccar” in 2014, telling authorities that he had escaped Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) violence in Syria.
It has been also revealed that Sömer met Kocakaya after he arrived in Diyarbakır with a rented vehicle before the attack.
A total of 29 people were killed and dozens were wounded in the car bomb attack staged during the passing of a shuttle carrying military personnel on Feb. 17.
A splinter group from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was in retaliation for the situation in the southeastern district of Cizre and the policies of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Turkish officials claimed that the perpetrator was a Syrian national from the Peoples’ Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara considers to be the Syrian offshoot of the PKK.
A total of 15 people were also arrested in connection with the attack.
