2 Dead in Suicide Bombing at U.S. Embassy in Turkey

2 Dead in Suicide Bombing at U.S. Embassy in Turkey

By SEBNEM ARSU and RICK GLADSTONE 11 minutes ago

ISTANBUL — A security guard at the embassy and the bomber died, and a visiting Turkish journalist was injured in the attack, which took place in Ankara, the capital city.

• Video Shows the Aftermath of Bombing 11:29 AM ET

  
  

  

  Yavuz Ozden/Milliyet, via Associated Press

  A security guard at the United States Embassy in Ankara asked for help just minutes after a suicide bombing.

  By SEBNEM ARSU and RICK GLADSTONE

  Published: February 1, 2013

  ISTANBUL — A suicide bomber attacked the American Embassy in the Turkish capital, Ankara, on Friday, detonating himself inside a security entrance to the compound in a blast that officials said killed a Turkish guard and wounded a visiting Turkish journalist. The Obama administration called the attack an act of terror and warned American citizens to temporarily avoid its diplomatic missions in Turkey.

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  Mehmet Ali Ozcan/European Pressphoto Agency

  People gathered outside the United States Embassy in Ankara, Turkey, on Friday.

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  Adem Altan/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

  The bomb appeared to have exploded inside the security checkpoint at the side entrance of the embassy, but did not do damage inside the embassy itself.
  It was at least the fifth assault on an American diplomatic property since the deadly attack on the United States Mission in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, an event that escalated into a major political problem for the Obama administration and led to vastly tightened security at all United States embassies and consulates over concern about attacks by Islamist militant extremists.
  Interior Minister Muammer Guler said the Ankara bomber was a known member of an outlawed leftist radical group in Turkey, suggesting that the motive was not religious hostility toward the United States. But American officials said the motives and those responsible for the bombing in Ankara remained under investigation.
  In Washington, the White House spokesman, Jay Carney, told reporters, “The attack itself is clearly an act of terror.” Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who was attending a security summit meeting in Germany at the time, also said the bombing was “obviously as a terrorist attack on our embassy in Ankara.”
  Alaattin Yusel, the governor of Ankara, told reporters in televised remarks that the explosion took place at a security entrance inside the embassy grounds. He spoke in front of the main embassy building, which apparently was not damaged, as he stood with the American ambassador, Francis J. Ricciardone Jr.
  News photographs of the explosion site showed extensive damage to a squat one-story building just inside the compound where visitors are checked by security guards and an X-ray machine.
  Turkish news media said preliminary investigations by security officials said the bomber might have detonated a suicide belt prematurely as he was going through security controls. NTV, a private television broadcaster, said embassy security cameras had shown the assailant entering and panicking as he walked through an X-ray machine.
  The other fatality in the blast was identified as Mustafa Akarsu, 47, one of the Turkish security guards at the embassy.
  The wounded victim was identified as Didem Tuncay, 39, a former foreign news reporter for NTV, who had been en route to a meeting with Mr. Ricciardone at the time. Ms. Tuncay was taken to Numune Hospital in Ankara, and officials there said that the right side of her face had been hurt in the blast and that she was in serious condition.
  Turkish-American relations are strong and friendly, but Turkey has not been immune to anti-American attacks in recent years. In 2008, three gunmen attacked security guards outside the American Consulate in Istanbul in a shootout that left the attackers and three police officers dead.
  After the suicide bombing, the United States Embassy posted an emergency message on its Web site advising American citizens not to visit the embassy or the consulates in Istanbul or Adana until further notice. It also advised Americans traveling or residing in Turkey “to be alert to the potential for violence, to avoid those areas where disturbances have occurred, and to avoid demonstrations and large gatherings.”
  The police in Ankara sealed off the roads around the embassy compound after the blast, witnesses said.
  “It happened two buildings away from us,” said Yunus Emre, a worker at a restaurant frequented by embassy officials.
  “Our windows shook with a loud sound, and people who worked at the embassy rushed out in panic, running toward the embassy,” he said in a telephone interview. “There are already many security officials in the area at all times, but police and ambulances came almost immediately after.”
  Fikret Bila, a columnist with the Milliyet newspaper, which has offices in the area, said pieces of flesh and tree branches were strewed nearby.
  The roads around the embassy compound, located on a main thoroughfare in central Ankara, have been under routine police surveillance for several years.
  The attack came as the Milliyet newspaper reported the arrest of the son-in-law of Osama bin Laden in an Ankara security operation. But Mr. Bila said security officials did not believe that there were links between the reported arrest and the attack.
  Sebnem Arsu reported from Istanbul, and Rick Gladstone from New York. Tim Arango contributed reporting from Istanbul and Nicholas Kulish from Berlin.
  COPY  http://global.nytimes.com/