Turkey jails three for life after deadly 2016 bombing

Turkey sentenced three people to life in jail for their role in the deadly 2016 bombing of a packed transport hub in Ankara, Turkish media have reported.

The bomb attack on Ankara left 36 people dead and 344 wounded, in the second bombing to target the capital in a month.

The defendants were accused of being members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is banned as a terrorist organisation in Turkey, the EU and UK.

It came amid a wave of attacks in the security-tight country by Kurdish militants and the Islamic State group. The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK) claimed responsibility for the bombing, which is said to be an off-shoot of the PKK.

Thirty-seven people were given aggravated life sentences - which are subject to harsher conditions than regular life sentences - for the killing of 36 people and damaging the unity of the state, according to Reuters.

Turkey has clamped down on militant attacks in the country in the wake of a wave of bombings in the country following a renewed Kurdish insurgency and the rise of IS in neighbouring Syria.

Ankara has also arrested hundreds following the failed 2016 coup, which has been blamed on exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen.

Turkey has fought a decades' long insurgency against the PKK and other Kurdish militants in the south of the country.