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Suicide Bombing at U.S. Embassy in Turkey Kills Guard Suicide Blast Kills U.S. Embassy Guard in Turkey
(about 1 hour later)
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. ISTANBUL — A man approached a visitor’s gate at the American Embassy in the Turkish capital Ankara Friday afternoon and detonated an explosives-packed vest, killing himself and a Turkish security guard, blowing a gaping hole in the wall and raising new fears about the protection of American diplomats serving in this region.
Interior Minister Muammer Guler said the bomber was a known member of an outlawed leftist radical group in Turkey, suggesting that the motive may have differed from the Islamist militant hostility toward the United States that has been a theme of other attacks on American diplomatic facilities in recent months. But American officials said the motives and those responsible for the bombing in Ankara remained under investigation. Within hours Turkish authorities blamed the attack on a homegrown Marxist organization, and Friday evening Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the issue had been “clarified” by a DNA test that revealed the bomber had been in a Turkish prison for domestic terrorism. A White House official said it was too early to determine who was behind the attack, and the United States would conduct its own 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.” The bombing immediately called to mind the attack on an American diplomatic facility in Benghazi, Libya, more than four months ago that was carried out by Islamist extremists and killed the American ambassador and three others. That episode touched off a politically charged debate in Washington about the protection of diplomats serving in the volatile Middle East, and led to the tightening of security protocols and heightened fears about Islamist militant extremism.
Alaattin Yuksel, 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 was some distance from the bombing site and apparently was not damaged, as he stood with the American ambassador, Francis J. Ricciardone Jr. On Friday, after the Ankara attack, the State Department immediately warned American citizens to temporarily avoid American diplomatic offices in Turkey.
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. Just after lunchtime, according to images captured on a security camera and reported by the Turkish television channel NTV, a man entered a security checkpoint near the consular section and began to panic as the metal detector buzzed. When he reached for his midsection, a Turkish security guard yelled, “Run away, a bomb!” according to NTV. The footage then went black.
The other fatality in the blast was identified as Mustafa Akarsu, 47, one of the Turkish security guards at the embassy. Ambulances and police rushed to the scene. A T Turkish journalist on her way to have tea with the American ambassador, Francis J. Ricciardone Jr., was critically wounded.
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. Alaattin Yuksel, the governor of Ankara, told reporters in televised remarks that the explosion took place at a security entrance to the embassy grounds. He spoke in front of the main embassy building, which appeared undamaged. “We’ve had hundreds of phone calls, in the first minutes, hundreds of text messages of condolences and support,” Mr. Ricciardone told reporters, standing with Mr. Ricciardone. “We feel we are among friends. We feel safe. Thank you for sharing our pain and sorrow on this occasion. We will continue to fight terrorism together.”
Victoria Nuland, a State Department spokeswoman in Washington, told reporters that several other embassy staff members, American and Turkish, were treated for minor injuries from flying glass, and that security improvements at the compound in recent years had prevented more casualties. Hours after the attack Interior Minister Muammer Guler said an initial investigation had identified the bomber has having been a member of an outlawed leftist group that Mr. Erdogan later identified as the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front, a Marxist-Leninist organization which was responsible for attacks on American targets in Turkey in the early 1990s.
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. However, the White House spokesman, Jay Carney, said in a briefing with reporters in Washington, “We do not know at this point who is responsible or the motivations behind the attack.” And the Turks’ findings were treated with suspicion by some terrorism experts.
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.” “I’m rarely stumped on these things, but I am stumped,” said Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at Georgetown University in Washington. He explained that Islamic terrorism would seem far more likely, and the swift manner in which the Turks said they had cracked the case raised eyebrows. “When a terrorist crime is solved within 24 hours it is suspicious,” he said.
The police in Ankara sealed off the roads around the embassy compound after the blast, witnesses said. The State Department warning to American citizens said they should avoid United States diplomatic missions in the country “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.”
“It happened two buildings away from us,” said Yunus Emre, a worker at a restaurant frequented by embassy officials. The group that Turkish officials blamed for the attack is on the State Department’s list of terrorist organizations and has mainly targeted Turkish officials and generals. It was held responsible for the assassination of a former prime minister in 1980 and a suicide attack on a police station in Istanbul last September. It was also a played a role in the political violence that convulsed Turkey in the late 1970s and prompted a military coup in 1980 to restore order.
“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.” Ali Nihat Ozcan, a terrorism expert with the Ankara-based Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation, said the group has in the past received support from Syria and suggested the attack — if the group’s involvement is confirmed — may have been related to Turkey’s policy of supporting the rebels fighting to oust the Syrian government.
Fikret Bila, a columnist with the Milliyet newspaper, which has offices in the area, said pieces of flesh and tree branches were strewed nearby. “We are talking about a highly marginal but dedicated urban terror group that has a large Arab Alawite membership, and tied to the Syrian intelligence with strong historical links since 1980s,” Mr. Ozcan said.
The roads around the embassy compound, located on a main thoroughfare in central Ankara, have been under routine police surveillance for several years. Turkish-American relations are strong and friendly, but Turkey has not been immune to anti-American attacks in recent years. In 2008, three gunman attacked security guards outside the American consulate in Istanbul in a shootout that left the attackers and three police officers dead. In 2003 truck bombs targeted the British consulate, HSBC bank and two synagogues in Istanbul, killing dozens in an attack blamed on Al Qaeda.
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.

Reporting was contributed by Rick Gladstone from New York, Michael R. Gordon from Washington, and Nicholas Kulish from Berlin.

Sebnem Arsu reported from Istanbul, and Rick Gladstone from New York. Reporting was contributed by Tim Arango from Istanbul, Michael R. Gordon from Washington, and Nicholas Kulish from Berlin.