HakkariTurkish

New evidence suggests that the suicide bomber behind March 19's attack in Istanbul may have come from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) or the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Turkish officials said. 

Turkey's air force carried out airstrikes on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) bases in northern Iraq on two separate operations on March 18 and March 19, the military said.

In a statement on its website, the Turkish General Staff said 20 F-16 and F-4 jets bombed positions in the Sinat, Haftanin and Gara regions on March 18 night.        

A four-month-old baby girl drowned off the southwestern coast of Turkey when a vessel carrying refugees sank early on March 19.

According to the Turkish Coast Guard, 21 refugees were rescued, but the infant was found dead.        

The refugee boat reportedly was en route to the Greek island of Chios when it sank off the coast of the Çe?me district.        

Turkey is set to begin taking back illegal migrants crossing into Greece as of March 20, and the returns will start as of April 4, a senior Turkish official has said. 

Four people were killed in two separate shootings in the Turkish capital Ankara on March 18, a city on edge since a suicide bombing last weekend, but terror groups were not involved in either incident, newspaper reports and an official said.

A policeman shot a policewoman in the Dikmen neighborhood, near military and government buildings, daily Hürriyet said.

European Union leaders approved on March 18 a migration deal with Turkey, Finland's Prime Minister Juha Sipila said on Twitter.

"The Turkey deal was approved," Sipila said. 

Former German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle has died following a battle with leukemia. He was 54.

Syrians topped the list of foreigners with the most start-ups in Turkey in February, with the number of Syrian firms established totaling 188, according to data from the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB).

One police officer was killed on March 18 during operations conducted against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the Nusaybin district of the southeastern province of Mardin.

Two lenders from Iran are planning to take license to do business in the Turkish market, said the head of Turkey's banking watchdog. 

"We have taken demands from Iranian banks. Two Iranian lenders want to take banking license in Turkey," said the head of the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK), Mehmet Ali Akben, on March 16.