At least 34 dead in car bomb attack in Ankara, Turkey

A car bomb killed at least 34 in Ankara, Turkey
(Image credit: Erhan Ortac/Getty Images)

A powerful explosion ripped through cars and buses in a busy commercial district in Ankara, Turkey's capital, on Sunday night, killing at least 34 people and wounding 125 more. Turkish officials said the car bomb, detonated not far from parliament and the prime minister's office, was likely the work of Kurdish separatist militants or the Islamic State. A small Kurdish faction claimed responsibility for a car bomb attack on military buses in Ankara less than a month ago that killed 29 people, while Turkey has blamed most of the five other major bombings over the past nine months on ISIS. No group has yet taken responsibility for Sunday's attack.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu convened an emergency meeting of top security officials, saying afterward that investigators discovered concrete evidence about the organization that carried out the attack, to be released after the investigation was complete. "Our nation is being targeted by multipronged terrorist attacks in a difficult and unstable geography," he said. The main Kurdish party, the Peoples' Democratic Party, said it shares "the huge pain felt along with our citizens."

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.