Ten more people detained in Ankara bombing probe: PM

Reuters
A pair of shoes, belonging to a street vendor who was selling Turkish traditional bagel or simit, is placed at the bombing scene during a commemoration for the victims of Saturday's bomb blasts, in Ankara, Turkey, October 12, 2015. REUTERS/Umit Bektas

ANKARA (Reuters) - Ten more people have been detained in connection with messages they wrote on Twitter about the suicide bombings which killed 99 people in Ankara, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Thursday, bringing the number held to 12. Davutoglu told Reuters on Wednesday some of the suspects in Saturday's attack, the worst of its kind in Turkey, had spent months in Syria and could be linked to Islamic State or to Kurdish militants. "In connection with the Ankara attack, 10 more people have been detained regarding their Twitter accounts," Davutoglu said in a live TV interview with the TGRT news broadcaster on Thursday. Government officials said on Wednesday two people had been detained over their Twitter messages regarding the attack. It was not clear on what grounds they were being held. The prime minister had told Reuters the bombing of a rally of pro-Kurdish activists and civic groups was intended to undermine his ruling AK Party in Nov. 1 polls and deny it the votes it needed to form a majority government. The interior ministry has removed Ankara's police, intelligence and security chiefs from their posts as it pushes ahead with the investigation, after President Tayyip Erdogan admitted there had been an intelligence failure. (Reporting by Ercan Gurses; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Dasha Afanasieva and Andrew Roche)