The U.S. Embassy in Ankara, Turkey was attacked by a suicide blast on Friday. The bomber killed himself and a Turkish security guard and injured three other people.
Turkish officials identified the suicide bomber as 40-year-old Ecevit Sanli, a member of an outlawed leftist-extremist group called Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front, which was responsible for attacking U.S. bases in Turkey during the early 1990s.
The SITE Intelligence Group distributed a statement released by the group on Saturday that referred to the U.S. as “the murderer of the people of the world.”
According to images captured on the U.S. Embassy’s security camera, Sanli entered the security checkpoint and panicked when the metal detector sounded. A Turkish security guard yelled, “Run away—a bomb!” as the man detonated, ending the footage.
The attack occurred amidst a mission to deploy American and German Patriot missiles along the Syria and Turkey border, raising questions among officials whether or not the attack was motivated by Syria’s civil war.
According to Reuters, Turkish police detained 85 members of the suicide bomber’s party, also known as DHKP-C, which may also be a reason behind the attack.
The U.S. State Department warned American citizens, saying they should avoid American bases in Turkey for now and “to be alert to the potential for violence, to avoid those areas where disturbances have occurred, and to avoid demonstrations and large gatherings.”
“We strongly condemn what was a suicide attack against our embassy in Ankara, which took place at the embassy’s outer security perimeter,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said.
This is the second deadly attack on a U.S. facility in five months, following the terrorist attack on a U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, on Sept. 11, 2012, which killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens.
James Jeffrey, a former U.S. Ambassador to Turkey, told the Los Angeles Times the DHKP-C is not a major threat compared to al-Qaida. Jeffrey said the DHKP-C attacks with small arms along with periodic assaults “just to make sure people know they’re still out there.”
