Turkey pounds Kurdish camps after Ankara bombing

Turkish warplanes pounded Kurdish rebel bases in northern Iraq today, the day after a suicide car bomb tore through downtown Ankara killing at least 36 people, in the third attack on the capital in five months.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the latest carnage, which reduced cars and buses to charred hulks on a busy road in the heart of the city, wounding more than 120 people.
But Ankara believes one of the bombers was a woman who had ties to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, a Turkish official told AFP today.
Hours after the attack, Turkish F-16 and F-4 fighter bombers hit arms depots and shelters of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the mountainous Kandil and Gara regions in northern Iraq, the army said, quoted by the state-run Anatolia news agency.

The strikes came as the government announced three more deaths overnight from Sunday's huge explosion at a bus stop near a busy square in central Ankara.
"As of this morning... We lost three more citizens in hospital," Health Minister Mehmet Muezzinoglu said in televised comments.

He gave an overall toll of 37, but said this included at least one attacker and possibly two.
By today morning, the area was locked down under heavy security, with armed police standing guard and forensic experts picking through the scene.
The military said the PKK targets were hit "with precision", with a spokesman for the rebels confirming the strikes and saying that so far, there was no clear picture of the damage caused.

Yesterday's attack bore similarities to another suicide car bombing in Ankara on February 17 which targeted military personnel and killed 29 people.
That attack was claimed by the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), linked to the PKK, which said it was revenge for operations by the Turkish military in the southeast of the country.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Turkey had "concrete information" on the group behind the attack, saying results from inquiry would be made public soon.
"One attacker is believed to be a woman with links to the PKK," a Turkish official told AFP on Monday, without giving further details.

Officials say yesterday's attackers deliberately targeted the bus stop, which is close to Kizilay square, a bustling commercial area and local transport hub near the parliament, prime minister's office and foreign embassies.