Turkey arrests 18 suspects following Ankara bomb attack
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E-mail Xinhua, March 15, 2016
Turkish security forces have arrested 18 suspects following a car bomb attack that killed at least 37 people in the capital city of Ankara, private Dogan news agency reported on Monday.
The arrests were made in simultaneous operations in the northwestern province of Eskisehir and the southeastern province of Sanliurfa, Eskisehir Governor Gungoz Azmi Tuna was quoted as saying.
"The suspects were involved in terrorist propaganda and tried to embrace terrorists. They were involved in various actions," the governor said.
Documents related to "illegal organizations" were seized during the raids, he added.
Sunday's blast took place in Kizilay district in the heart of Ankara near a bus stop where many people were waiting, leaving 37 dead and several others wounded.
"Turkey has become a target of terror attacks due to the instability in the region," President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said late on Sunday.
He vowed to continue fighting against terrorism.
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, in an attack claimed by the Kurdistan Freedom Hawks, a Kurdish militant group linked to the outlawed Kurdish Workers Party (PKK).
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 since then in confrontations inside Turkey and in northern Iraq.
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