Suicide bombers attack Turkey:Two police officers were injured in a “terrorist attack” outside the parliament in Ankara, the Interior Ministry said.
Turkey’s interior ministry said authorities were investigating a “terrorist” attack in which two attackers, including a suicide bomber, detonated a bomb in the center of the Turkish capital. Both attackers were killed, but one exploded, wounding two police officers in the capital’s first blast in years.
The interior minister said that they drove to the main entrance of the building and detonated an explosion in the area where the ministry building and the parliament are located. He added that one attacker was killed in the blast and the authorities “neutralized” the other.
Reuters footage after the blast showed a Renault van parked in the street with the windows smashed and the door open, the street strewn with debris and surrounded by soldiers, police, ambulances, fire engines and armored vehicles. The attack on Atatürk Boulevard was the first in Ankara since 2016 and took place within a kilometer (0.6 miles) on the opening day of parliament.
A senior Turkish official told Reuters the attackers hijacked a vehicle and killed the driver before launching the attack in the town of Kayseri, 260 kilometers (161 miles) southeast of Ankara. One of the injured policemen suffered shrapnel injuries, he added.
“Two terrorists in a light commercial vehicle drove up to the gate of our Ministry of Interior’s General Security Directorate and staged a bomb attack,” Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced on social media platform X. It’s called Twitter. He added that one of them exploded and the other was “neutralized”, which usually means killed, while two policemen sustained minor injuries in the incident at 9:30 (06:30 GMT).
Police also said they would carry out controlled explosions in other areas of Ankara in response to “suspicious package incidents”. Authorities did not identify any specific armed groups.
Almost a year ago, an explosion on a busy pedestrian street in central Istanbul killed six people and injured 81 others. Turkey blamed Kurdish fighters for the explosion.
Erdogan is due to attend the opening of parliament at 7:30 p.m., which is expected to consider approving Sweden’s bid to join NATO in the coming weeks after Turkey raised initial objections and delayed NATO expansion. European Council President Charles Michel said he strongly condemned what he called a “terrorist” attack, while EU Enlargement Commissioner Oliver Valherli expressed support for Turkey’s “fight against terrorism”.
