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Ankara bomber identified as 24-year-old PKK member

Xinhua, March 15, 2016 Adjust font size:

The suicide bomber who carried out the deadly attack in Ankara on Sunday was identified as a member of the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK), Turkey's Interior Ministry said on Tuesday.

The PKK member was Seher Cagla Demir and she was born in 1992 in the province of Kars in eastern Turkey, said the ministry.

Demir joined the PKK in 2013 and later received training with the People's Protection Units (YPG) in Syria.

The car bomb in Ankara's central Kizilay neighborhood on Sunday evening hit a major public transportation hub, killing 37 people and injuring over 100 others.

It was the third major blast to hit the Turkish capital since last October.

On Oct. 10, 2015, suspected Islamic State (IS) militants bombed a peace rally near Ankara Railway Station, killing 103 people.

On Feb. 17, a suicide car bomb targeted military shuttles in the capital city, killing 29 and injuring 81 others. The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks, a Kurdish militant group linked to the PKK, claimed responsibility.

Since a cease-fire between the government and the PKK collapsed last July, Turkish security forces have been conducting a major campaign against the group in the southeast of the country.

More than 260 members of Turkish security forces and thousands of PKK members have been killed inside Turkey and in northern Iraq. Endit