Syria’s main Kurdish party says attack proves Turkey supports IS, Turkey denies Kobani attack launched from Turkish territory
Kurdish forces in Kobani have called on Ankara to immediately investigate how Islamic State (IS) fighters were able to launch a suicide attack on the city from Turkish territory on Saturday. The incident represents the first time that IS has launched an attack on the Syrian border town from Turkey.
Four IS fighters blew themselves up in Kobani on Saturday, including a car bomb which targeted the Mursitpinar border crossing between Syria and Turkey, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported. Subsequent clashes between Kurdish forces and IS resulted in the death of at least 30.
Kurdish People’s Protection Unit (YPG) spokesman Mohamed Hajj Nasser called on the Turkish government to investigate how IS forces were able to cross into Syria from Turkish territory.
Nasser revealed IS had carried out two car bomb attacks on sites in and around Kobani from Turkish territory, while two other suicide bombers had targeted other areas close to the town which has been under siege by IS forces for months.
The People’s Democratic Party (HDP), Turkey’s main Kurdish party, has accused Ankara of failing to deal with the presence of IS fighters on Turkish soil. In a statement issued after the attack, HDP claimed that IS fighters were “utilising state grain depots on the Turkish side of the border as a base from which to attack Kobani”.
“This proves that IS is being supported (from within Turkey),” the statement added.
Ankara has denied Kurdish claims that it is tacitly supporting the jihadists. Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu’s office stressed that Ankara has taken “all necessary precautions” along the Syrian-Turkish border, denying the reports that Saturday’s attack on Kobani had come from Turkish territory.
