An organiser of a deadly suicide attack in Ankara in February that left at least 28 people dead has been killed in counter-terror operations in Kurdish-majority southeast Turkey, a Turkish official said on Friday.

“Mehmet Sirin Kaya, a mastermind of the February 17 suicide attack against military personnel in Ankara has been killed in counter-terrorism operations in Lice, Diyarbakir,” the official told journalists, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK) — a radical splinter group of the better-known Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) — claimed the suicide bomb attack in Ankara, saying that it was in response to security operations in the southeast.

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Turkey has remained on high alert after a wave of attacks on its soil blamed on not only Kurdish militants but also Islamic State (IS) jihadists.

At least 44 people were killed in a triple suicide bombing at Istanbul’s international airport on Tuesday, with the government pointing the finger of blame at IS jihadists.