In a statement posted on its website, the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK) militant group, said it carried out the attack in response to the policies of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“This act was conducted to avenge the massacre of defenseless, injured civilians,” the group said, threatening further attacks.
It said the bomber was Abdulbaki Sönmez, a 26-year-old Turkish national born in the eastern city of Van.
Turkey had blamed a U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish militia group for the attack, saying they had acted in collaboration with the Kurdistan Workers party (PKK).
They vowed strong retaliation against the perpetrators, threatening to further complicate the Syria conflict.
TAK was once linked to the outlawed PKK. Some Turkish officials allege that TAK still acts as a militant front of the PKK, but TAK says the relationship has been severed. Both groups are considered terrorist organisations by Turkey, the US and the EU.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Thursday that Turkish forces would continue to shell Kurdish positions on Syrian soil as its accusations against Syrian Kurds and the government in Damascus raised fears of an escalation.
Turkey’s military said after that its jets conducted cross-border raids against Kurdish rebel positions in northern Iraq hours after the attack and struck a group of about 60 to 70 PKK rebels. The Turkish jets attacked PKK positions in northern Iraq’s Haftanin region, hitting the group of rebels which it said included a number of senior PKK leaders, the military said. The claim couldn’t be verified.
