By Emre Peker
ISTANBUL--An outlawed Kurdish separatist group claimed
responsibility for the shooting deaths on Wednesday of a Turkish
police officer and a member of a government counterterrorism unit,
further escalating tensions in a country already reeling from a
devastating suicide bombing.
The Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, said the killings in
Turkey's southern Sanliurfa province were retaliation for Monday's
suicide attack in the border town of Suruç that killed 32 people
and wounded more than 100 others. Turkish officials have blamed the
Sunni Muslim extremist group Islamic State for the bombing.
The PKK, which has been fighting for Kurdish autonomy in
southeastern Turkey since 1984 and is designated a terrorist
organization by Ankara, Washington and the European Union, said the
men targeted in Wednesday's shootings had aided Islamic State. An
official in Sanliurfa had no immediate comment on the PKK's
claim.
The mounting bloodshed has escalated pressure on the government
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, which is more preoccupied with
dampening the soaring international influence of Kurdish militants
and toppling Syrian President Bashar al-Assad than in combating
Islamic State.
As public criticism of the government swelled over its failure
to prevent Monday's bombing, Mr. Davutoglu met with Turkey's spy
chief, Hakan Fidan, and convened his cabinet to discuss the attack,
border security and the situation in neighboring Syria, a
government official said.
He has vowed to improve security along Turkey's 565-mile border
with Syria and to eradicate all acts of terrorism, whether they're
committed by Islamic State or the PKK.
Turkish authorities on Wednesday identified Monday's suicide
bomber as Seyh Abdurrahman Alagoz, a native of Adiyaman province,
which borders Sanliurfa. The 20-year-old Mr. Alagoz and his older
brother, Yunus Emre, had been missing for six months, according to
the state-run Anadolu news agency.
Some private Turkish media organizations reported that the two
men had joined Islamic State, and state-run news agencies said the
older brother had operated a tea house where the extremist group
recruited fighters. Turkish officials haven't confirmed those
reports.
"I haven't seen my sons for six months, and I appealed to the
police to find them three months ago. This incident has been a
shock for us, and we're now in mourning," Zeynal Abidin Alagoz, the
father of the two men, told the Dogan news agency in Adiyaman.
Moves by the government to tighten security and identify those
responsible for Monday's bombing haven't quieted the government's
vociferous critics.
The attack has sparked denunciations of Ankara's efforts to oust
Mr. Assad, a campaign some critics say has drawn Islamist militant
groups closer to Turkey's border, if not into the country
itself.
Opposition lawmakers have called for mass protests to condemn
terrorism and the government's foreign policy, while police have
deployed tear-gas and water cannons against antigovernment
demonstrators.
Turkey is part of the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State,
but doubts persist over the Ankara's dedication to cracking down on
the extremist group, which opposes the push by Syrian Kurds for
autonomy and considers the Damascus regime its enemy.
In response to the groundswell of disapproval, Turkish
authorities briefly cut off access to Twitter Inc. and other
social-media sites on Wednesday. The aim was to curb the spread of
information about the Suruç attack and to interrupt calls for
"illegal mass demonstrations," Anadolu said.
The temporary blackout came just hours after a court in
Sanliurfa ordered the suppression of attack-related photographs and
video.
A spokesman for Twitter had no immediate comment on the ban. A
government official said Twitter was forced to shut briefly because
it couldn't remove Suruc-related content within the time period
ordered by the court. An appeals court late Wednesday annulled the
embargo.
Internet controls have become a routine measure for Turkish
authorities amid crises and scandals, said Burcak Unsal, former
local counsel for Google Inc.
"The government's first reaction to events, which indicate a
lack of authority, is a media ban," said Mr. Unsal, now a partner
at Unsal Gunduz, an Istanbul law firm. "The government is
intolerant of even basic media freedoms and people's right to
know."
Sam Schechner in Paris contributed to this article.
Write to Emre Peker at emre.peker@wsj.com
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