A Kurdish militant group identifying itself as the Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK) claimed responsibility Friday for Wednesday's bombing in Turkey's capital of Ankara that killed 28 people, according to a statement on its website.
TAK said the bombing was in response to the policies of President Tayyip Erdogan and vowed that the attacks would continue in the future, reported the International Business Times. The statement also revealed that the person driving the explosive-laden vehicle that night was a 26-year-old Turkish national.
TAK was once linked to the banned Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, though that relationship is now severed. Ever since breaking off from the larger militant group, TAK has been responsible for a series of bombings, with the most recent one occurring in December when the group launched a mortar attack at Istanbul's second airport that left an aircraft cleaner dead, according to Reuters.
Wednesday's incident occurred at the height of rush hour when the vehicle packed with explosives detonated next to a few military buses as they waited in traffic near parliament and Turkey's military headquarters. Turkey was quick to classify the blast as a terrorist attack and placed the blame on a member of YPG, the Kurdish fighting force in Syria, and PKK members operating in Turkey.
It has been revealed that a YPG member who infiltrated from Syria with members of the separatist terror organization conducted this attack," Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said at the time, according to CNN.
However, it now appears that TAK's claim of responsibility has debunked Turkey's prior assumptions.
