What appears to be a bomb aimed at shuttles full of military personnel in Ankara, Turkey, has killed 18 people, with authorities noting the death toll may rise as information filters in.
“We are looking into details of the explosion,” declared Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu.
Davutoğlu has postponed a planned visit to Brussels.
“Terror has attacked treacherously in Ankara. We curse this attack,” wrote AKP spokesman Ömer Çelik.
Reports indicate the explosion took place “just a hundred metres away from the parliament and the military headquarters.”
It also occurred during a “high-level security meeting” at President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Presidential Palace.
The country’s “TV watchdog RTÜK also imposed a broadcast ban on the attack.”
“There are reports of casualties,” explained Zeina Khodr of Al Jazeera. “This is really in the heart of the Turkish capital – it is clearly a message to the Turkish government. This is the fourth major explosion in Turkey in the past few months.”
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
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Last October, two bombings in Ankara killed 97 people and wounded hundreds more in the deadliest attack in post-Ottoman Turkish history.
Police arrested two suspected members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) four days later who allegedly tweeted about the incident before it occurred.
The Marxist People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) claimed responsibility for an attack in Istanbul in January. The attack killed the female bomber and a policeman. They also attempted a bombing in Istanbul on January 1.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu claimed a member of the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) bombed Istanbul on January 10, and attack that killed 10 people, mostly German citizens, and injured 15.
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