Suicide bomb attack at U.S. embassy in Turkey kills one

An explosion at a side entrance to the U.S. embassy in the Turkish capital, Ankara, killed a Turkish security guard and wounded several others on Friday.

The Turkish state media cited witnesses as saying the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber.

A Reuters witness saw one wounded person being lifted into an ambulance
as police cordoned off the area following the explosion, which sent smoke and debris flying into the street.

Television footage showed a door blown out and masonry from the wall around it scattered in front of the side entrance, although there did not appear to be any more significant structural damage to the building.

“It was a huge explosion. I was sitting in my shop when it happened. I saw what looked like a body part on the ground,’’ said travel agent Kamiyar Barnos, whose shop window was shattered around 100 meters away from the blast.

Ankara Governor, Alaaddin Yuksel, said the attacker was inside U.S. property when the explosives were detonated. The blast sent masonry spewing out of the wall of the side entrance, but there did not appear to be any more significant structural damage.

The bomber was also killed.

U.S. Ambassador to Turkey, Francis Ricciardone, emerged through the main gate of the building, which is surrounded by high walls, shortly after the explosion to address reporters, flanked by a security detail as a Turkish police helicopter hovered overhead.

“We are very sad of course that we lost one of our Turkish guards at the gate,” Mr. Ricciardone said, thanking the Turkish authorities for a prompt response.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. The British Consulate-General to Turkey said the blast was a “suspected terrorist attack”.

Islamist radicals, far-left groups, far-right groups and Kurdish separatist militants have all carried out attacks in Turkey in the past.

The main domestic security threat comes from the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party, PKK, deemed a terrorist group by the U.S., EU and Turkey,. But the PKK has focused its campaign largely on domestic targets.

Turkey has led calls for international intervention in neighbouring Syria and is hosting hundreds of NATO soldiers from the U.S., Germany and the Netherlands who are operating a Patriot missile defence system along its border with Syria, hundreds of km away from the capital.

The U.S. Patriots were expected to go active in the coming days.

The most serious attacks of this kind in Turkey occurred in November 2003, when car bombs shattered two synagogues, killing 30 people and wounding 146.

Authorities said the attack bore the hallmarks of al Qaeda.

Part of the HSBC Bank headquarters was destroyed and the British consulate was damaged in two more explosions that killed other 32 people a week later.

(Reuters/NAN)