Turkey suicide bombers killed near Ankara after police ‘tip off’
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8 October 2016
- From the section Europe
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Reuters
Forensic experts have been examining the bombers’ car
Two suicide bombers have blown themselves up near the Turkish capital, Ankara, after they were approached by police.
The militants, believed to be a male and female, were suspected of planning to carry out a car bomb attack, the state-run Anadolu news agency reports.
They detonated the devices after they were asked to surrender their weapons.
Police had been acting on a tip-off, Ankara’s governor said, suggesting a link to Kurdish separatists.
Erkan Topaca said police had found the pair hiding at a horse farm in the district of Haymana, just outside the capital.
He said: “The organisation they are connected to is not clear yet but according to information we have received it is highly likely that [the man] is linked to the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party).”
The BBC’s Mark Lowen in Ankara says the pair were said to be flying a Turkish flag from their car as cover and a third person is now being sought.
Plastic explosives and ammonium nitrate were found with the vehicle.
Kurdish militants have carried out a wave of bombings across Turkey since a ceasefire broke down in 2015.
The Turkish president has vowed that the PKK, which has waged a four-decades-long fight in Turkey, will be “annihilated”.
But, our correspondent says, with the attacks continuing and hostility deepening between Kurds and the Turkish state, there is little sign of the insurgency ending and neither side has shown a willingness to return to peace negotiations.