A suicide bombing on a government building in Turkey’s capital of Ankara Sunday morning was a terrorist attack, Turkish Internal Affairs Minister Ali Yerlikaya said.
The outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), listed as a terrorist group by Turkey as well as a number of its Western allies, claimed responsibility for the attack. In a statement to the ANF news agency, PKK fighters said that the “sacrificial action” had been carried out by its “immortal brigade.”
Local media reports said explosions and gunfire were heard in the city. Atatürk Boulevard, home to a number of government buildings and the country’s parliament, was closed. MPs were due to return to work Sunday following the summer recess.
“At around 9:30 a.m., two terrorists arrived with a light commercial vehicle in front of the entrance gate of the General Directorate of Security of our Ministry of Internal Affairs [and] carried out a bomb attack,” Yerlikaya said in a statement.
“One of the terrorists blew himself up and the other terrorist was neutralized,” the minister said. Two police officers were injured. “Our struggle will continue … until the last terrorist has been neutralized,” Yerlikaya said.
Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said an investigation has been launched into the attack.
“These attacks will in no way hinder Turkey’s fight against terrorism,” Tunc said in a statement. “Our fight against terrorism will continue even more determinedly.”
In November 2022, a bombing on a major shopping street in Turkey’s largest city, Istanbul, killed six and left more than 80 people injured. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan blamed the “treacherous attack” on extremist Kurdish separatist groups.
Gabriel Gavin
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