There was no immediate claim for the attack
New Delhi: Four people were killed and 14 others injured in an attack on the headquarters of a top Turkish defence firm near Ankara, Turkish officials said on Wednesday.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was in Russia holding talks with Vladimir Putin at the time, confirmed the death toll and condemned the “heinous terrorist attack” on state-run Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI).
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said three of the injured were in critical condition and two attackers “a woman and a man” had been shot dead.
He said work was underway to ascertain their identities but did not say if any other attackers were still at large.
Local media broadcast footage showing clouds of smoke and a large fire at the scene in Kahramankazan, a small town about 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of Ankara.
The incident occurred as Erdogan was meeting Vladimir Putin at a summit in Kazan, where the Russian leader expressed his condolences over the attack.
Media outlets showing live footage from the scene had to halt their broadcasts after Turkey’s media watchdog ordered a blackout of images from the scene.
Haberturk TV said without giving further details that a “hostage situation” remained, while private NTV television spoke of gunfire following the explosion, which occurred at about 4:00 pm (1300 GMT).
There were no immediate claims for the attack, but the justice minister said an investigation had been launched.
NTV spoke of a suicide attack, saying “a group of terrorists” had entered TAI’s headquarters and that one of them blew himself up.
Pictures shown by Habertürk showed that one of the attackers was a woman, while the Sabah newspaper published a CCTV image from cameras installed at the building’s entrance showing a young man dressed in black with a moustache carrying a rucksack and an assault rifle.
The attack was condemned by Transport Minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu as well as opposition leader Özgür Özel, who heads the CHP.
Özel wrote on X, “I condemn the terrorist attack against TAI facilities in Kahramankazan… I condemn terrorism, no matter who it is or where it comes from.”
According to TAI’s website, the state-run company, which is also a major arms manufacturer, employs 15,500 people and has a huge production site that spans an area of ​​five million square metres.
Erdogan in Russia
The blast came as Erdogan was with Putin in the Russian city of Kazan for the BRICS summit of major emerging market countries including Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
“I would like to express my condolences in connection with the terrorist attack,” Putin said at the start of their meeting. NATO chief Mark Rutte also offered the alliance’s support to member country Turkey in talks with Erdogan after the attack. “I have just spoken to (President) Erdogan about the terrorist attack in Ankara. My message was clear: NATO stands with Turkey,” Rutte wrote on X, using the country’s official Turkish name. The Turkish city of Istanbul is currently hosting a major trade fair for the defence and aerospace industries, which was visited this week by Ukraine’s top diplomat. Turkey’s defence sector, known for its Bayraktar drones, accounts for about 80 percent of the country’s export revenue. According to Haluk Gorgun, head of Turkey’s State Defense Industry Agency (SSB), contracts worth $10.2 billion were signed last year. Gorgun said defense export revenue in the first eight months of this year reached $3.7 billion, up about 10 percent from the same period last year. The last attack in Turkey was in January, when two gunmen opened fire inside a Catholic church in Istanbul, killing one person. Jihadists from the Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility for that attack. Two policemen were injured in an attack in a government district in Ankara in October 2023. Police shot down one attacker, while the other was killed in a suicide bombing outside the Interior Ministry. That attack was claimed by the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party), which has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984 that has claimed thousands of lives.
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