Türkiye: suicide attack in Ankara, PKK claims responsibility

A suicide attack struck the heart of the Turkish capital, Ankara, on Sunday October 1st. The attack, which took place in the morning, was claimed at the end of the afternoon by the PKKthe Kurdistan Workers’ Party, considered “terrorist” by Turkey. Two police officers were injured during this attack which targeted the police headquarters and the Ministry of the Interior, very close to the Turkish parliament. The two attackers died, one blew himself up and the other was shot “in the head”specified Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya.

These events occurred a few hours before the opening of the new parliamentary session which should validate Sweden’s entry into NATO. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived at the parliament grounds early in the afternoon at 2 p.m., as planned, before giving a speech. “The scoundrels who threaten the peace and security of citizens have not achieved their objectives and will never achieve them,” he assured.

An explosion heard several kilometers away

The high-power explosion was heard several kilometers away: a video recorded by a surveillance camera shows a gray vehicle slowly parking in front of police headquarters. The front passenger gets out and walks forward, gun in hand, shoots and blows himself up in front of the police officer’s booth on duty. A second man rushes in turn but disappears from the image, swallowed by the smoke and dust raised by the explosion which also causes high flames. He was shot, said the minister, who called on the press to stop broadcasting images of the attack on social networks.

Ankara was the scene of numerous and violent attacks during the years 2015-2016, claimed by the Kurdish separatists of the PKK, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party or by the Islamic State group. In October 2015, an attack in front of Ankara central station attributed to ISIS left 109 people dead.