Militants detonate car bomb in Ankara

Two individuals have detonated a car bomb during a police operation in the Turkish capital of Ankara, state media report.

The suspects set off the car bomb they had prepared after police called on them to surrender, the official Anadolu news agency said.

The attackers, believed to be a male and female, were reportedly killed in the explosion while a third person was being sought.

There were no immediate reports of any other casualties in the blast, which occurred Saturday morning in the outskirts of the city.

They were suspected of being linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) group which is engaged in an armed campaign against the Turkish government.

CNN Turk said the militants were in possession of plastic explosives and 200 kilograms of ammonium nitrate.

The blast follows a motorcycle bomb explosion near a police station in Istanbul on Thursday in which at least 10 people were injured.

Over the past few months, a number of bomb explosions have hit Turkey, some blamed on the Daesh terrorist group and some on PKK, which is fighting for Kurdish autonomy in the country’s southeast.

The deadliest attack took place in Ankara on Oct. 10, 2015, killing 103 people attending a peace rally. Authorities blamed that attack on Daesh.

In June, Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport was hit by triple bombings, which left 45 people dead. The attack was blamed on Daesh.

Fighting between the PKK and the state security forces resumed last year after the collapse of a fragile ceasefire after two and half years.

Since then, more than 600 Turkish security personnel and thousands of PKK militants have been killed in clashes, including hundreds of civilians.