The Turkish far-left group DHKP-C claimed responsibility
for a suicide bomb attack on the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, according to a statement
on a website linked to the group, news agencies reported.
The statement posted Saturday on "The People's
Cry" website said Ecevit Sanli carried out "an act of self-sacrifice
on Feb. 1, 2013, by entering the Ankara embassy of the United States, murderer of
the peoples of the world," according to Reuters and The Associated Press.
The DHKP-C's statement also called Turkish Prime Minister
Tayyip Erdogan a U.S. "puppet," according to Reuters.
"Murderer America! You will not run away from
people's rage," the statement read, warning Erdogan that he was also a
target.
A picture the website claimed was of the bomber was posted
with the statement. A government terror expert confirmed the authenticity of
the website, the AP reported.
The Ankara governor's office said DNA tests showed Sanli
had indeed been the attacker. Authorities said Sanli had fled Turkey 10 years
ago and was wanted by the police, according to Reuters.
Sanli had previously been jailed in 1997 for attacks on a
police station and a military staff college in Istanbul, but Reuters said his
sentence was postponed because he became sick during a hunger strike. He was
never imprisoned again.
After he was sentenced to life in prison in 2002, Sanli
fled Turkey, according to Reuters. Interior Minister Muammer Guler said he was
able to return to the country using false documents.
The Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front, or
DHKP-C, is a far-left group designated a terrorist organization by the United
States, Turkey and the European Union. Leftist groups such as the DHKP-C
strongly oppose the United States' influence over Turkey.
Also on Saturday, Turkish state media said officials
detained three people in Istanbul and Ankara in connection with the attack,
Reuters reported.
A suicide bomber blew himself up at an entrance to the
U.S. Embassy compound in Ankara on Friday. The bomber and a Turkish guard were
killed in the attack, which the U.S. described as "an act of terror."
The bomber, who was wearing a suicide vest, made it to the
first X-ray machine in a screening area leading to the visa section, police
sources said, and then detonated the device.
The Turkish security guard standing nearby was killed, but
two guards on the other side of the checkpoint, behind bulletproof glass,
survived. A Turkish journalist on her way to visit the ambassador was
critically wounded.
On Sept. 11 last year, U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens
and three other Americans were killed in an attack on the U.S. Consulate in
Benghazi, Libya, prompting concern about security for diplomats.
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said on
Friday that after Benghazi, every U.S. post in the world reviewed its security.
She added that the embassy in Ankara is one of the posts due for a complete
compound overhaul. The building housing the embassy was built in the 1950s and
needs a full upgrade, Nuland said.
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Terrors shall make him afraid on every side, and shall
drive him to his feet.
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His strength shall be hungerbitten, and destruction
[shall be] ready at his side
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For the morning [is] to them even as the shadow of
death: if [one] know [them, they are in] the terrors of the shadow of death.
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