ANKARA, Turkey — A Syrian national with links to Syrian Kurdish militia was the suicide bomber who killed at least 28 people in an attack targeting buses carrying military personnel, Turkey's prime minister said Thursday.
Ahmet Davutoglu said that Turkey's Kurdish rebels collaborated with the Syrian. The prime minister said authorities had detained nine people in connection with Wednesday's rush-hour incident in the heart of Ankara.
Turkey's military said its jets retaliated by striking Kurdish rebel positions across the border in northern Iraq on Wednesday night.
Yeni Safak, a newspaper close to the government, reported the bomber had been registered as a refugee in Turkey.
Davutoglu added: "The attack was carried out by the PKK together with a person who sneaked into Turkey from Syria," referring to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, known as the PKK.
The attack comes as Turkey gets dragged ever deeper into the war in neighboring Syria and tries to contain some of the fiercest violence in decades in its predominantly Kurdish southeast.
Turkey is part of a U.S.-led coalition fighting ISIS in neighboring Syria and Iraq, and has been shelling Kurdish militia fighters in northern Syria in recent days.
However, Kurdish militia groups have also been battling ISIS.
A cease-fire between Turkey and the PKK collapsed in July.
