Kurdish group TAK claims Ankara car bomb attack

A Kurdish militant group linked to the outlawed Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) has claimed responsibility for a car bomb attack in Turkey's capital Ankara that killed 28 and injured more than 80.

In a statement on Friday, the Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK) said they carried out the attack on military personnel on Wednesday, according to Firat News Agency which is known affiliated with the PKK.

The group claimed that the perpetrator of the Ankara attack was Abdulbaki Sonmez, born in eastern Van province of Turkey.

Turkish officials, however, had said the attacker was Syrian born Saleh Nejar who is linked to the People's Protection Units (YPG) in Syria.

TAK also said the attack was in response to the Turkish government's recent military operations in Cizre town of southeastern Diyarbakir province, in which the military announced more than 600 PKK members were killed.

The group has earlier claimed responsibility for attacks in some cities and touristic sites outside the PKK's regular area of operation in the mainly Kurdish southeast, such as a 2015 attack at Istanbul's second airport that left an aircraft cleaner dead and another injured. Endit