ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A suicide bomber detonated an explosive gadget within the coronary heart of the Turkish capital, Ankara, on Sunday, whereas a second assailant was killed in a shootout with police, the inside minister stated.
The assault occurred hours earlier than Parliament was set to reopen after its three-month summer season recess with an deal with by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Two cops have been barely injured throughout the assault close to an entrance to the Ministry of Inside Affairs, minister Ali Yerlikaya stated on X, the social media platform previously referred to as Twitter. The assault was carried out by assailants who arrived on the scene inside a light-weight business car, he stated.
“Our heroic cops, by their instinct, resisted the terrorists as quickly as they received out of the car,” Yerlikaya later informed reporters. “One among them blew himself up whereas the opposite one was shot within the head earlier than he had an opportunity to blow himself up.”
“Our combat in opposition to terrorism, their collaborators, the (drug) sellers, gangs and arranged crime organizations will proceed with dedication,” he stated.
The minister didn’t say who was behind the assault and there was no rapid declare of accountability. Kurdish and far-left militant teams in addition to the Islamic State group have carried out lethal assaults all through the nation prior to now.
In his speech in parliament, Erdogan known as the assault “the final stand of terrorism.”
“The scoundrels who focused the peace and safety of the residents couldn’t obtain their objectives and so they by no means will,” he stated.
The president reiterated his authorities’s purpose to create a 30-kilometer (20 mile) secure zone alongside its border with Syria to safe its southern border from assaults.
Adem Altan/AFP by way of Getty Pictures
Turkey has launched a number of incursions into northern Syria since 2016 to drive away the Islamic State group and a Kurdish militia group, identified by the initials YPG, from the frontier, and controls swaths of territory within the space.
Turkey views the YPG as an extension of the banned Kurdistan Staff’ Occasion, or PKK, which is listed as a terror group by Turkey, the USA and the European Union. The PKK has waged an insurgency in opposition to Turkey since 1984. Tens of 1000’s of individuals have died within the battle.
Final 12 months, a bomb blast in a bustling pedestrian street in Istanbul left six individuals lifeless, together with two kids. Greater than 80 others have been wounded. Turkey blamed the assault on the PKK and the YPG.
The state-run Anadolu Company reported that the 2 attackers on Sunday had seized the car within the central province of Kayseri from a veterinarian. The professional-government each day Sabah reported that they shot the person within the head and threw his physique right into a ditch by the facet of the street. They then drove the car to Ankara, roughly 300 kilometers (200 miles) away.
Safety digital camera footage on Sunday confirmed the car stopping in entrance of the ministry, with a person exiting it and dashing towards the doorway of the constructing earlier than blowing himself up. A second man is seen following him.
Earlier, tv footage confirmed bomb squads working close to a car within the space, which is situated close to the Turkish Grand Nationwide Meeting and different authorities buildings. A rocket launcher may very well be seen mendacity close to the car.
Turkish authorities later imposed a brief blackout on photographs from the scene.
Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc stated an investigation has been launched into the “terror assault.”
“These assaults will on no account hinder Turkey’s combat in opposition to terrorism,” he wrote on X. “Our combat in opposition to terrorism will proceed with extra dedication.”
Police cordoned off entry to town heart and elevated safety measures, warning residents that they’d be conducting managed explosions of suspicious packages.
The 2 cops have been being handled in a hospital and weren’t in severe situation, Yerlikaya stated.
Egypt, which has normalized ties with Turkey after a decade of tensions, condemned the assault. A terse assertion from the International Ministry provided Egypt’s solidarity with Turkey.
The U.S. Embassy in Ankara and different international missions additionally issued messages condemning the assault.
Erdogan in his speech didn’t present any indication as to when Turkey’s parliament could ratify Sweden’s membership in NATO.
Stockholm applied for NATO membership alongside Finland following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine final 12 months. Whereas Finland has since joined, Turkey blocked Sweden’s membership within the army alliance, accusing it of not doing sufficient to sort out teams like PKK from working on its soil. In a posting on X, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson stated Stockholm “strongly condemns immediately’s terrorist assault in Ankara. We reaffirm our dedication to long-term cooperation with Türkiye in combatting terrorism and need for fast and full restoration of those injured.”
Related Press writers Cinar Kiper in Bodrum, Turkey, Robert Badendieck in Istanbul, and Jari Tanner in Helsinki, Finland contributed.
