Government issues arrest warrant for Syrian Kurdish leader

pulse

November 22, 2016 11:42 AM

All three are believed to be at the group's paramilitary rear bases in mountainous northern Iraq.

Salih Muslim, leader of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), speaks during an interview in Marseille, southern France, on December 1, 2013

Turkey on Tuesday issued an arrest warrant for the leader of the main Syrian Kurdish political party over a deadly bombing in Ankara in February, the state-run Anadolu news agency said.

Arrest warrants were issued for the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) leader Salih Muslim as well as several fugitive leaders of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) over the February 17 bombing against military vehicles, it said.

Turkey had blamed the PYD and its military wing, the People's Protection Units (YPG) for the bombing which left at least 28 people dead and was followed by another devastating bombing in the capital in March.

But the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK) -- a radical splinter group of the better-known PKK -- claimed the suicide bombing, saying that it was in response to security operations in the southeast.

Turkey considers the YPG and the PYD to be terror groups, accusing them of seeking to carve out an autonomous Kurdish region in northern Syria and working with President Bashar al-Assad.

But while the United States sees the PKK as a terror group, it works closely with the YPG as its main ally on the ground in the fight against jihadists in northern Syria.

The dispute over the YPG and PYD has raised tensions between Ankara and Washington.

As well as Muslim, arrests warrants were issued for fugitive PKK leaders Cemil Bayik, Murat Karayilan and Fehman Huseyin over the bombing, Anadolu said.

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