The attacker of the Sept. 3 bombing in northern Syria's Azaz province stated during his confessions to Turkish security forces that he was forced to carry out the attack by PKK-affiliated groups in order to rescue his older brother. The terrorist, with the initials A.A., indicated that he had received training from the PKK and its affiliate, the Peoples' Protection Units (YPG), and subsequently conducted the attack, in which one civilian died and 11 were left injured.
Explaining that he contacted a person working in the northern Syrian province of Manbij as an intelligence officer, namely Bashar al-Barhush and his wife, to free his brother from YPG captivity, A.A. said Barhush called him one week later to meet with a member of the terrorist group called Adnan abu Rashid. "He said, 'We want you to deliver us intelligence from [Syrian regime head Bashar] Assad's army and the Syrian National Army [SNA]' to rescue my brother. For my brother, I spoke on the telephone with Rashid for one and a half months."
Stating that after this time he met with the terrorist once again when he heard the proposal of the motorcycle to be brought to the Euphrates Shield area, A.A. added: "I accepted their order compulsorily to rescue my brother. Four days later, they gave me the bomb-loaded motorcycle. Bashar came with me to the Sajur River. When we arrived, there were two more motorcycles."
Accordingly, one of those motorcycles entered the Euphrates Shield area before A.A., and the second one returned because the driver had no identity card. A.A. was told to leave the bomb-loaded motorcycle at an intersection in Azaz. Soon after, he entered the area 15-20 minutes later and did as told.
A.A. added further that he was given TL 250 for food and his return but that he was caught by security forces on his way to al-Bab.
