ANKARA, Turkey – Attackers detonated explosives and opened fire on Turkish state-run airline TUSAS on Wednesday, killing four people and injuring more than ten, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.
Two attackers – a man and a woman – were also killed, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said.
Yerlikaya did not say which organization was behind the attack, as the process of identifying the attackers is ongoing. But Defense Minister Yasar Guler pointed the finger at the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.
“We always give these PKK perpetrators the punishment they deserve. But they never came to their senses,” said Guler. “We will follow them until the last terrorist is eliminated.”
The Islamic State group and left-wing extremists have also carried out attacks in the past in Turkey.
“We have four martyrs. We have 14 injured. I condemn this heinous act of terrorism,” Erdogan said while speaking with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the BRICS meeting in Russia.
Putin expressed his condolences. A statement from the US Embassy said Washington “strongly condemns today’s terrorist attack.”
TUSAS designs, manufactures and assembles civil and military aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles and other industrial defense and space systems. Its UAVs have contributed to Turkey’s gains in fighting Kurdish militants on its territory and across the border in Iraq.
The attack came a day after the leader of Turkey’s Erdogan-aligned nationalist party suggested that the jailed PKK leader could be granted amnesty if he stopped violence and disbanded his organization.
Abdullah Ocalan’s group has been fighting for independence in southeastern Turkey in a war that has killed tens of thousands of people since the 1980s. It is considered a terrorist group by Turkey and its Western allies.
The pro-Kurdish political party in the country also condemned the attack, noting that it happened at a time when there were talks to end the conflict.
Turkish media said the attackers arrived at the entrance to TUSAS in a taxi on Wednesday. The attackers, who were carrying weapons, detonated an explosive near the taxi, and they were shocked and allowed to enter.
The Ministry of Interior said that the attack was carried out by two attackers, and said that the situation was under control.
The taxi driver was among the dead, according to HaberTurk television.
Footage from security cameras, broadcast on television, shows a man wearing a jacket and carrying a backpack with a gun.
The interior minister said security teams were dispatched shortly after the attack began at around 3:30 p.m.
Multiple gunshots were heard after security forces entered the area, DHA media and other media sources said. Helicopters were seen flying above the building.
Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz said the target of the attack was “Turkey’s success in the defense industry.”
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Associated Press writer Robert Badendieck in Hamburg, Germany, contributed.
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