Probe into attack on police facility in Ankara widens

ANKARA

Police tightened the security measures around the attacked facility building in Ankara’s Dikmen on Sept 21. No one was injured in the attack. AP Photo

The police investigation into the attack on Sept. 21 in Ankara against a police facility building has widened, with Interior Minister Muammer Güler saying the outlawed Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C) was behind the attack.

Güler said the suspect shot dead by the police for a rocket attack on a police station in Ankara late Sept. 20 was a militant of the DHKP/C, adding that the same suspect was also responsible for an earlier attack on the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) headquarters in Ankara on March 19.

“It has been determined that the attacker, who was captured dead, was the same person who carried out the attack on the AKP building in Ankara on March 19. Another [captured] person was being tracked by us for his illegal activities. He travelled to Greece earlier, we know this,” he told reporters.

“Unfortunately two vicious attacks happened. A group of 2,000-member teams were appointed right after the attack to conduct a search by examining every option.”

“In the end, two terrorists have been captured, one of them dead, the other injured” Güler said. Deputy Prime Minister Beşir Atalay said the attack was being investigated down to the last detail.

One rocket had struck the first floor of a police station building in Ankara’s Dikmen neighborhood, while another rocket targeted the annex building located on the grounds of the Police General Directorate’s social services campus across from the scene of the initial attack.

“We believe that the assailants are members of the DHKP/C, according to our findings,” the Police General Directorate said in a statement Sept. 21. The Sept. 21 attack did not cause any casualties. One of the suspected perpetrators was killed and the other captured alive during a shootout after the police had intercepted them around an hour after the attack occurred.

‘Suspect involved in AKP attack too’

The Police General Directorate said that the dead suspect, identified as Muharrem Karataş, was also sought for his involvement in a flame thrower attack against the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) national headquarters last march. The DHKP/C also took responsibility for a suicide attack on the U.S. embassy in Istanbul in February.