At least five killed in Ankara bomb blasts
Vehicle laden with explosives detonated as military buses passed close to parliament, government buildings and Turkey's military headquarters
Ankara: At least five people were killed in the Turkish capital Ankara on Wednesday when a vehicle laden with explosives detonated as military buses passed close to parliament, government buildings and Turkey’s military headquarters, the governor’s office said.
Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said on Twitter the attack was an act of terrorism. Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who had been due to leave for a trip to Brussels later on Wednesday, cancelled the trip, an official in his office said.
“I heard a huge explosion. There was smoke and a really strong smell even though we were blocks away," a Reuters witness said.
Turkish media reports said many people were injured.
The blast comes after an attack in Ankara in October blamed on Islamic State, when two suicide bombers struck a rally of pro-Kurdish and labour activists outside the capital’s main train station, killing more than 100 people.
Kurdish militants, radical leftists and Islamic radicals, have all staged bombings in Turkey in recent years.
A central strategy of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged a three-decade insurgency in Turkey, has been to attack military targets, although it has largely focused on the mainly Kurdish southeast. Reuters
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