TIRANA, October 1 – President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that terrorists will never achieve their aims, hours after the blast injured two police officers in a powerful explosion outside the interior ministry, which was followed by large flames heard for several kilometres from the site of the attack on Sunday, it was reported from Ankara.
The targeted district is home to several other ministries and the Turkish parliament, which reopened as planned in the afternoon with an address from President Erdogan.
“The villains who threaten the peace and security of citizens have not achieved their objectives and will never achieve them,” Erdogan told the parliament.
The interior ministry said two attackers arrived in a commercial vehicle around 9:30 am (0630 GMT) in front of “the entrance gate of the General Directorate of Security of our Ministry of the Interior, and carried out a bomb attack.”
“One of the terrorists blew himself up. The other was killed by a bullet to the head before he had a chance to blow himself up,” Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said in a press statement outside the ministry as quoted by AFP.
“Two of our police officers were lightly injured” in the exchange of fire, but their lives were not in danger, he added.
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), listed as a terror group by Turkey and its Western allies, claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing in the Turkish capital of Ankara on Sunday that injured two people.
“A sacrificial action was carried out against the Turkish Interior Ministry by a team from our Immortal Brigade,” FRANCE 24 reported on Sunday.
Numerous foreign leaders voiced support for Turkey after the attack, with messages of support coming from Germany, the United Kingdom, the US embassy in Ankara and other countries. /argumentum.al
