Turkish suicide attack mastermind is ‘killed in counter-terror operation’

The mastermind of a deadly suicide attack that left at least 28 people dead in the Turkish capital Ankara has been killed in a counter-terror operation. Mehmet Sirin Kaya died during a raid in Lice, Diyarbakir, which is in the Kurdish-majority southeast of the country, according to officials. The February 17 suicide attack was targeted at military personnel and was claimed by an offshoot of the Kurdistan Worker’s Party, or PKK, which Turkey considers a terrorist organisation.

Mehmet Sirin Kaya, a mastermind of the February 17 suicide attack against military personnel in Ankara has been killed in counter-terrorism operations in Lice, Diyarbakir

Turkish official

The announcement came as Turkey is still reeling from Tuesday’s gun-and-bomb at Ataturk Airport, which left at least 44 people dead and more than 230 injured, The three suicide bombers in the attack — which echoed the carnage earlier this year at the Brussels airport — were from Russia, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan and possibly linked to Islamic State. On Friday, Turkish police arrested another 11 foreigners suspected of being members of an Islamic State cell in Istanbul. The arrests in a dawn raid in the Basaksehir district on the European side of the city, brought the number of people detained in the investigation to 24.

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