US explosives 'used in deadly attack on Turkish police'

By Sarp Ozer and Sinan Uslu

ANKARA

A huge bomb attack in southeast Turkey earlier this month was carried out using explosives supplied by the U.S. to the PKK/PYD in Syria, a security official said late Tuesday.

Speaking on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on talking to the media, the official said the April 11 attack on a police compound in Diyarbakir was conducted using U.S.-supplied munitions.

Three people were killed in the attack, for which the PKK claimed responsibility. The local governor said at the time that 1 tonne of explosives were placed in a tunnel under the complex.

The anonymous official, who did not provide any further detail about the explosives or explain how the security services came to identify their origin, also claimed that weapons supplied to the PKK/PYD by the U.S. had also been found in PKK camps.

The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and EU and Turkey also considers its Syrian affiliate the PKK/PYD a terror group. However, the U.S. regards the latter as a key ally in the fight against Daesh in Syria.

Turkey has repeatedly called for an end to U.S. support for the PKK/PYD.

The U.S.-provided weapons, which the source said included ammunition, anti-tank rockets and assault rifles as well as explosives, had passed into Turkey from Sinjar in northern Iraq and Syria’s Karacok region.

Both areas were struck by Turkish warplanes on Tuesday in attacks that drew criticism from Washington and led to the deaths of up to six Iraqi Peshmerga -- troops belonging to the Ankara-allied Kurdish Regional Government.

As well as citing the Diyarbakir attack, the official said the weapons had been used in other attacks on security forces across Turkey.

In April last year, the U.S. ambassador to Ankara denied arming the PKK/PYD and said any U.S. weapons found in PKK hands would have ultimately come from Iraqi security forces.

Since the PKK launched its terror campaign in 1984, an estimated 40,000 people in Turkey have died in related violence. Following a fragile cease-fire, the group resumed fighting in July 2015, since when it has been responsible for the deaths of approximately 1,200 security personnel and civilians, according to an official tally.