Turkey issues arrest warrant for Syrian Kurdish leader over alleged role in Ankara bombing

Syrian Kurdish leader wanted in connection to deadly car bomb in the Turkish capital in February which killed 30 people

Salih Muslim Mohammed has been co-chair of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) headquartered in the self-declared autonomous city of Rojava in northern Syria since 2010 (Wikimedia Commons)

Turkey has issued an arrest warrant for a Kurdish leader of Syrian nationality over his alleged role in a bombing in Ankara earlier this year, state media reports.

Salih Muslim Mohammed, 65, is the co-chair of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), based in northern Syria, which declared its autonomy from the Syrian state shortly after the civil war began in 2011.

Turkey blamed the Febrary 17 car bomb targeting military vehicles near parliament in the Kurdish capital which killed 30 people and left 81 injured on the PYD and its military wing, although radical splinter group the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons later claimed responsibility.

Turkey, which regards the PYD and the allied PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) as terrorist organisations, has arrested dozens of Turkish Kurdish politicians in recent months in connection with recent bombings claimed by Kurdish activists, and what it says are planned attacks against the state.

Ankara launched a military campaign in neighbouring Syria in August this year designed to oust Isis from the border region, with the secondary aim of curbing any Kurdish appetite for territorial expansion.

Mr Muslim Mohammed's name was among another 47 arrest warrants for PKK members announced on Tuesday.

Three prominent PKK leaders named - Cemil Bayik, Murat Karayilan and Fehman Huseyin - are believed to currently be based at the group's paramilitary bases in the mountains of northern Iraq.