Zeenews Bureau
Ankara: Turkish authorities have reportedly arrested three people in connection with the suicide bomb attack on the US Embassy in Ankara in which a suicide bomber and a security guard were killed. While two people have been arrested by police in Ankara, the third suspect was taken into custody in Istanbul and will be brought to Ankara, as per reports.
The Turkish authorities have identified the 40-year-old suicide bomber as Ecevit Sanli, a member of Turkey`s leftist Revolutionary People`s Liberation Party-Front, or DHKP-C. DHKP-C made this declaration in a statement posted on the internet.
Sanli was passing through the X-ray machine when he blew himself which killed the security guard at the entrance on the embassy, reports said. Sanli was armed with enough TNT to blow up a two-story building and also detonated a hand grenade, officials said. It said the suicide bomber, Ecevit Sanli, carried out the act of "self-sacrifice" on behalf of the group.
In the statement, the outfit accused US of being the “murderers of the world’’. The group called itself "immortal" and said, "Down with imperialism and the collaborating oligarchy." But it gave no reason for attacking the US Embassy.
NTV, citing unidentified security sources, said one of the suspects is a man whose identity Sanli allegedly used to enter Turkey illegally, while the second was suspected of forging identity papers. There was no information about the third suspect.
Earlier, Turkish Interior Minister Muammer Guler said Sanli had fled Turkey after he was released from jail in 2001, but managed to return to the country "illegally," using a fake ID. It was not clear how long before the attack he had returned to Turkey.
NTV said he is believed to have come to Turkey from Germany, crossing into Turkey from Greece. Police officials in Ankara could not immediately be reached for comment.
A Turkish security guard was killed and several other people wounded in a suicide bombing outside the highly-fortified US embassy in Ankara on Friday.
