Interior minister critiques ‘negligence’ in Ankara tax office explosion

ISTANBUL

Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu has criticized a security “negligence” that contributed to the tax office explosion in the Turkish capital on Feb. 1. 

“The same man left the bag the previous day at the same time. He waited two hours for an explosion, but when the bag failed to explode, he took the bag and left. Our private security guard should have followed this from the camera,” Soylu said at an event titled “Private Security Guard Training Program.”

“The important thing is this: The bag was left there. A private security guard was watching the cameras. He missed the incident. But he did not just miss the incident. The same man left behind a bag the previous day at the same time. Your job is so important. We care about you so much. Your job is an indispensable job for us,” he added.

The explosion in the Ankara’s Çukurambar district slightly injured three people.

Soon after the blast, authorities reported that the explosion had taken place in the gas boiler room of a tax office.

But after investigating security footage, the police said a man had placed a bag they believe to have contained explosives at the entrance to the building, the governor’s office said in a statement on Feb. 2.

The statement also said eight people, including the man believed to have planted the explosives, had been detained in four separate provinces.

The suspect who was killed had entered Turkey illegally and received training from a branch of the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), the governor’s office said.