BackTurkey news: Suicide bomber detonates explosive device near Parliament in Ankara, 2 cops hurt
A suicide bomber has detonated a bomb near Turkey's parliament, injuring two police officers.
PremiumA suicide bomb attack took place near Turkey's parliament in Ankara on Sunday. According to the interior ministry, two attackers arrived in a commercial vehicle around 12 pm (IST) "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 attackers blew himself up and the other was killed in a shootout with police, the interior minister said. Two police officers received minor injuries.
According to media reports, the area where the blast happened is home to several other ministries and the Turkish parliament, which was due to reopen today with an address from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after a three-month summer recess.
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There was no immediate information on the assailants. Kurdish and far-left militant groups as well as the Islamic State group have carried out deadly attacks throughout the country in the past.
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Turkey attacks
Erdogan was set to speak during the opening of this parliamentary session, which must validate Sweden's entry into the NATO alliance.
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Hungary and Turkey in July lifted their vetoes against Sweden's entry into the Atlantic alliance, but have been slow to ratify its membership.
Erdogan indicated in July that ratification by the Turkish parliament would not take place before October, but it is expected to be approved during this parliamentary year.
For months, Erdogan has been putting pressure on Sweden to take action against Koran desecrations that have strained relations between the two countries.
Finland became NATO's 31st member country in April, after three decades of military non-alignment and in the midst of the war in Ukraine.
The capital Ankara has been the scene of several attacks, particularly during the years 2015 and 2016 -- many claimed by the outlawed separatist group the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), or the Islamic State group.
The PKK, which has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984, is blacklisted as a terror group by Ankara and its Western allies.
PKK-affiliated Kurdish militants control most of northeastern Syria.
In October 2015 an attack in front of a central station in Ankara claimed by the Islamic State group killed 109 people.
The most recent bomb attack in Turkey was on a shopping street in Istanbul in November 2022, where six were killed and 81 were injured.
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