Kim Hjelmgaard

USA TODAY

Turkish fighter jets on Thursday pounded Syrian Kurdish rebel positions across the border in northern Iraq in retaliation for an attack in Ankara on Wednesday that killed at least 28 people.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu both blamed Syrian Kurdish militias for a car bomb that targeted a convoy of Turkish military vehicles in the nation's capital. At least 61 people were wounded in the incident.

Salih Muslim, a Syrian Kurdish leader, nevertheless rejected Turkey's allegation, saying his group had "no link to these bombings." There were no other claims of responsibility including from the Islamic State that has bombed the city in the past.

Davutoglu said 12 people were detained in connection with the attack. He also confirmed the man who denoted the bomb was a Syrian national. Turkish newspaper Yeni Safak previously identified the bomber as Salih Necar, a registered Syrian refugee in Turkey. About 2 million Syrian refugees are in Turkey.

Death toll rises to 28 in Turkish car bomb blast

Davutoglu said the attack was the result of a collaboration between "the PKK together with a person (Necar) who sneaked into Turkey from Syria."

The PKK is the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, a banned militant organization in Turkey that is battling Ankara for more political rights. The PKK has sought autonomy from Turkey for decades but it stepped up a bombing campaign in July after peace talks with the Turkish government broke down.

The situation is complicated by Syrian Kurdish militia groups in Iraq and Syria who have been fighting Islamic State, or ISIL, militants alongside the United States and its allies. ISIL has also recently carried out bombing attacks in Turkey including an attack in Ankara in October that killed 102 people.

The U.S. has designated the PKK a terrorist group but has not done the same for the Syrian Kurdish militias. They have proved resilient in the face of ISIL.

Erdogan, Turkey's president, said Wednesday's attack demonstrated that there are strong links between the PKK and Syrian Kurd fighters.

Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency said there were casualties as a result of its bombing of rebel positions in Iraq but it did not provide specifics. Turkey said a separate attack by PKK militants in the country's southeast killed six soldiers.