ANKARA, Turkey — A Kurdish militant group claimed responsibility for a suicide attack that wounded 32 people in Istanbul over the weekend, a pro-Kurdish news agency reported Thursday.
The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons, an offshoot of the autonomy-seeking Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, claimed responsibility for Sunday's attack, the pro-Kurdish Firat News agency reported on its website. The PKK had denied any role in the suicide bombing Monday, when it extended a unilateral rebel cease-fire until parliamentary elections next summer in hopes of opening a dialogue with Turkish leaders.
Turkish authorities have identified the suicide bomber as 24-year-old Vedat Acar, a Kurd trained in a Kurdish rebel camp in the Hakurk area in northern Iraq, Turkish media reported Thursday. The Falcons said Acar was a senior member of their group, according to the Firat agency.
Firat quoted Dogan Baz, a spokesman for the Falcons' group, which is known by its Kurdish acronym TAK, as saying Acar had "organized the attack and acted on his own initiative."
