Two suicide bombers detonated their explosives during a standoff with police outside Ankara when officers stopped their vehicle. No one else is believed to have been harmed in the blast, which has been blamed on the PKK.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/DHA
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Ankara Governor Erkan Topaca said Saturday that two suicide bombers blew themselves up near a horse farm on the outskirts of the capital after police, acting on a tip, stopped their vehicle and ordered them to surrender.
The unidentified pair, a man and woman, set off the car bomb they had prepared, Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency reported, adding that the two suspects were the only casualties.
Private television channel CNN Turk reported that the two were believed to have been in possession of plastic explosives and 200 kilograms (440 pounds) of ammonium nitrate. Topaca said the assailants were suspected to have links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has carried out a series of suicide car bombings over the past year.
"The organization 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," Topaca said. "The way the incident was carried out and planned points at the PKK."
The PKK has waged a decadeslong insurgency against the Turkish state and advocates for political autonomy and cultural rights for Turkey's Kurdish minority. Extreme leftist and Islamist militants have also carried out bombings in Turkey in the past, with the 'Islamic State' (IS) militant group blamed for some recent attacks.
Picking up the rubble in troubled southeast Turkey
In Diyarbakir, Turkey's Kurdish capital, government forces are ending operations against PKK-linked fighters and leaving behind a UNESCO area laden with bullet holes, rubble and police checkpoints. Diego Cupolo reports.
Image: DW/D. Cupolo
Walking on rubble
After more than three months of urban warfare, Turkish forces are pulling out of Diyarbakir, where they've been trying to eradicate militants linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). On Monday, shopkeepers were seen sweeping up broken glass and reopening stores in areas once held under curfew, but fighting continues in six districts, which remain closed to the public.
Image: DW/D. Cupolo
Damage in Sur
The area worst hit by fighting was Sur, a historic district encircled by UNESCO-listed Roman era walls (visible in the center of the photo above). With streets too narrow for armored vehicles, the old city was well-suited for guerilla warfare and provided cover for militants trying to avoid ground and air attacks. Several historic sites were damaged as a result.
Image: DW/D. Cupolo
Back to normal
Residents are slowly returning to areas where fighting took place and finding a neighborhood damaged beyond repair. Locals estimate heavy artillery rounds have hit more than half of the buildings in Sur. While the complete death count has yet to be confirmed, the Turkish government said it lost 271 soldiers in the battles.
Image: DW/D. Cupolo
Fragmented life
Much of the street fighting has ended in Sur, but gun battles occurred on Monday night and there were seven deaths on Sunday, when PKK-sympathizers were caught inside a collapsed building. As people re-enter the recently opened corridors, they are faced with police checkpoints in and around the Sur district, and tensions remain high as helicopters circle overhead.
Image: DW/D. Cupolo
Ongoing war
Despite recent skirmishes, Turkish forces are winding down operations in Diyarbakir and have pulled out completely from Cizre, Idil, Jilopi and Dargecit. At the same time, they are opening new fronts in other parts of the nation's Kurdish region. This week, new military campaigns began in Yuksekova, Nusaybin and Sirnak.
Image: DW/D. Cupolo
Ocalan's legacy
Political graffiti is as common as bullet holes in Sur. Above, a woman passes a tag referencing Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the PKK, a group formed in the late 1970s to begin an armed struggle against the Turkish state for the expansion of Kurdish rights. At the moment, Kurds remain the largest group of stateless people in the world.
Image: DW/D. Cupolo
Collateral damage
A local teenager holds a bullet that was lodged in the front door of his family's home. Throughout the street battles, Turkish forces used battering rams to enter households in Sur and clear the district of opposition fighters. The teenager, who wanted to remain anonymous, said Turkish forces destroyed homes to punish residents for harboring 'terrorists,' regardless of their affiliations.
Image: DW/D. Cupolo
Lookouts at every corner
Two men push a cart through a lot recently cleared of sandbag trenches and rubble fallen from surrounding buildings. A man in a nearby bakery pointed out two lookouts on opposite corners of the lot. He said one worked for the government, while the other, who was sitting casually on a couch in the street, worked for the PKK.
Image: DW/D. Cupolo
Prospects of civil war
"Without a stable Turkey, there cannot be a stable Europe or United States and this conflict can become a civil war very easily," said Ramazan Tunc, an advisor for the Democratic Regions Party (DBP), a socialist Kurdish group. "Just think about where the refugees from [a war like this] will go."
Image: DW/D. Cupolo
To be rebuilt 'like Toledo'
Once operations end in Diyarbakir, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the architecture in Sur would be restored to rival that of Toledo, Spain. "Our struggle will continue until public order is brought to every province, every village, every field, every mountain and plain and river on this land," he told Turkish media in February.
