casey
07-01-2005, 07:22
Imitiation is the sincerest form of flattery. Word has it detonator worked - main charge failed.
Turkish police kill would-be suicide bomber near justice ministry
07-01-2005, 11h41
ANKARA (AFP)
Turkish police shot dead a wanted radical leftist after he attempted to blow up home-made explosives wrapped around his body at the justice ministry in a crowded Ankara neighborhood, media reports said.
(AFP/Ihlas News Ageny-HO)
The assailant was identified by unnamed police officials quoted by the Anatolia news agency as 25-year-old Eyup Beyaz, a member of the outlawed Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C), which is listed by the United States and the European Union as a terrorist organisation.
Police had been seeking Beyaz for the past two years on intelligence that he would carry out a suicide bombing, Anatolia said.
Earlier reports said he was carrying identification in the name of Muhammed Akyurt.
According to Anatolia, Beyaz showed up at the main entrance of the justice ministry at 9:30 a.m. (0630 GMT), where a detector went off, indicating the possible presence of explosives.
He was immediately overpowered by officers who handcuffed him.
Beyaz then tried to set off the fuse, and two policemen were slightly hurt when the device went off without igniting the main explosive, the CNN-Turk channel reported.
The assailant, wearing a beige shirt and pants, profited from the confusion and began running towards crowded Guven (Confidence) park, television footage showed.
He was shot in the foot by officers who gave chase in the midst of frightened passers-by, Anatolia said, but a special forces officer then shot him in the head when he tried once again to set off the explosives wrapped around his body.
He died on the spot.
Anatolia, citing police, said a home-made bomb was found on Beyaz.
The body lay in the park for more than an hour and a half as bomb disposal experts and forensic scientists inspected the scene that was cordoned off with dozens of officers keeping passers-by away, an AFP reporter said.
There was no official statement, Justice Minister Cemil Cicek, questioned by reporters, refusing comment and saying only that "an investigation is under way."
The shooting took place in one of the busiest parts of Ankara, the Ministries neighborhood, in a crowded park abutting the city's main road, Ataturk Boulevard, and often used as a short cut between various busy thoroughfares in the area.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's offices, as well as the ministry of education, the appeals court and several other government buildings are in the area that neighbors the city's central Kizilay (Red Crescent) square.
The DHKP-C, active mainly in urban areas and whose avowed aim is to spark a Marxist working class revolution, is blamed by the Turkish authorities for a series of attacks that have claimed nearly 200 lives since 1976, including thos of a former justice minister and two retired generals.
Last year, the group claimed responsibility for a blast on an Istanbul city bus ahead of a NATO summit there in which the woman carrying the bomb and three others were killed.
The group is also accused of masterminding a deadly wave of hunger strikes among left-wing prisoners and their friends and families against the introduction of high-security jails that has resulted in nearly 70 deaths since its launch in 2000.
Last year, dozens of suspected DHKP-C militants were detained in coordinated raids in Turkey, Belgium, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands.
The last attempted suicide bombing against a public building in Turkey occurred on May 16 in the eastern city of Siirt, when two militants of the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) died while trying to blow up the governor's office.
Turkish police kill would-be suicide bomber near justice ministry
07-01-2005, 11h41
ANKARA (AFP)
Turkish police shot dead a wanted radical leftist after he attempted to blow up home-made explosives wrapped around his body at the justice ministry in a crowded Ankara neighborhood, media reports said.
(AFP/Ihlas News Ageny-HO)
The assailant was identified by unnamed police officials quoted by the Anatolia news agency as 25-year-old Eyup Beyaz, a member of the outlawed Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C), which is listed by the United States and the European Union as a terrorist organisation.
Police had been seeking Beyaz for the past two years on intelligence that he would carry out a suicide bombing, Anatolia said.
Earlier reports said he was carrying identification in the name of Muhammed Akyurt.
According to Anatolia, Beyaz showed up at the main entrance of the justice ministry at 9:30 a.m. (0630 GMT), where a detector went off, indicating the possible presence of explosives.
He was immediately overpowered by officers who handcuffed him.
Beyaz then tried to set off the fuse, and two policemen were slightly hurt when the device went off without igniting the main explosive, the CNN-Turk channel reported.
The assailant, wearing a beige shirt and pants, profited from the confusion and began running towards crowded Guven (Confidence) park, television footage showed.
He was shot in the foot by officers who gave chase in the midst of frightened passers-by, Anatolia said, but a special forces officer then shot him in the head when he tried once again to set off the explosives wrapped around his body.
He died on the spot.
Anatolia, citing police, said a home-made bomb was found on Beyaz.
The body lay in the park for more than an hour and a half as bomb disposal experts and forensic scientists inspected the scene that was cordoned off with dozens of officers keeping passers-by away, an AFP reporter said.
There was no official statement, Justice Minister Cemil Cicek, questioned by reporters, refusing comment and saying only that "an investigation is under way."
The shooting took place in one of the busiest parts of Ankara, the Ministries neighborhood, in a crowded park abutting the city's main road, Ataturk Boulevard, and often used as a short cut between various busy thoroughfares in the area.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's offices, as well as the ministry of education, the appeals court and several other government buildings are in the area that neighbors the city's central Kizilay (Red Crescent) square.
The DHKP-C, active mainly in urban areas and whose avowed aim is to spark a Marxist working class revolution, is blamed by the Turkish authorities for a series of attacks that have claimed nearly 200 lives since 1976, including thos of a former justice minister and two retired generals.
Last year, the group claimed responsibility for a blast on an Istanbul city bus ahead of a NATO summit there in which the woman carrying the bomb and three others were killed.
The group is also accused of masterminding a deadly wave of hunger strikes among left-wing prisoners and their friends and families against the introduction of high-security jails that has resulted in nearly 70 deaths since its launch in 2000.
Last year, dozens of suspected DHKP-C militants were detained in coordinated raids in Turkey, Belgium, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands.
The last attempted suicide bombing against a public building in Turkey occurred on May 16 in the eastern city of Siirt, when two militants of the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) died while trying to blow up the governor's office.