Suicide blast rocks Turkey’s capital, Ankara

Turkey’s capital, Ankara, has been struck by a suicide blast earlier today. The incident involved two attackers, one of whom detonated a bomb, causing significant damage in the heart of the city.

The Ministry of Interior swiftly labeled the attack as an act of terrorism and launched an immediate investigation.

Tragically, both attackers lost their lives in the blast, with one of them triggering the explosion. Additionally, two police officers sustained injuries during the attack. The assailants targeted the main entrance of a building complex housing ministerial offices and the parliament.

Post-blast footage captured by Reuters depicted a Renault cargo vehicle parked at the scene, its windows shattered, and doors ajar. The area was swarmed with soldiers, police officers, ambulances, fire trucks, and armored vehicles responding to the emergency.

This incident marks Ankara’s first major explosion in years, with the last significant attack of this nature occurring back in 2016. Alarmingly, the attack took place on the very day when President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was scheduled to attend the opening session of parliament, situated just a kilometer away.

A senior Turkish official revealed that the attackers had hijacked the vehicle used in the attack, killing its driver in Kayseri, a city located 260 kilometers southeast of Ankara, before carrying out the assault. One of the injured police officers suffered shrapnel injuries.

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya, addressing the situation on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), stated, “Two terrorists came 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.” He further confirmed that one attacker detonated the bomb while the other was “neutralized,” a term commonly used to indicate that the individual was killed. The incident occurred at 9:30 am local time (06:30 GMT).

In response to the heightened security concerns, the police announced their intention to conduct controlled explosions for “suspicious package incidents” in various parts of Ankara.

As of now, authorities have not attributed the attack to any specific armed group.

This unsettling incident occurs nearly a year after a separate explosion in central Istanbul claimed six lives and left 81 people wounded. Turkey had attributed that incident to Kurdish militants.

President Erdogan was originally scheduled to attend the parliamentary opening session at 7:30 pm, during which discussions about ratifying Sweden’s bid to join NATO were expected. Turkey had initially raised objections to this move, causing a delay in the enlargement of the alliance.

In response to the attack, President of the European Council Charles Michel strongly condemned what he referred to as a “terrorist” attack, while EU Commissioner for Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi expressed the EU’s support for Turkey in its fight against terrorism.