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Turkish leader: Kurdish militants could also hit Europe

Turkish leader: Kurdish militants could also hit Europe

By ASSOCIATED PRESS

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses a meeting of local administrators at his palace in Ankara, Turkey, on Wednesday, March 16, 2016. Photo: Murat Cetinmuhurdar, Presidential Press Service, Pool via AP

ANKARA: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday warned Europe that it, too, could fall victim to attacks by Kurdish militants following a terror attack in Ankara that killed 37 people. Speaking at ceremony to commemorate the 101st anniversary of the Battle of Gallipoli in the coastal town of Canakkale, Erdogan said, 'there is no reason why the bomb that exploded in Ankara cannot explode in Brussels, in any other European city.' 'The snakes you are sleeping with can bite you any time,' he added. Meanwhile, in the mainly Kurdish province of Diyarbakir in southeastern Turkey, police found a bomb in a car parked near a regional government office and school, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported. A bomb team successfully defused 150 kilograms of explosives. Turkey has been wracked by conflict in mainly Kurdish areas of the southeast and suffered a string of attacks, including two on its capital that were claimed by an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Brussels and Washington, like Ankara, list the PKK as a terrorist organisation. But the West supports Syrian Kurdish groups that Turkey considers as affiliates of the PKK and a threat to its national security.