ANKARA, Turkey — In the second deadly assault on a US diplomatic post in five months, a suicide bomber struck the American Embassy in Ankara yesterday, killing a Turkish security guard in what the White House described as a terrorist attack.
Washington immediately warned Americans to stay away from US diplomatic facilities in Turkey and be wary in large crowds.
Turkish officials linked the bombing to the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party, a leftist group that has claimed responsibility for bombings and assassinations since the 1970s.
“We strongly condemn what was a suicide attack against our embassy in Ankara, which took place at the embassy’s outer security perimeter,” said White House spokesman Jay Carney.
“A suicide bombing on the perimeter of an embassy is, by definition, an act of terror,” he said. “It is a terrorist attack.”
A Turkish TV journalist was seriously wounded in the 1:15 p.m. blast, and two other guards had less serious wounds, officials said.
Hillary Rodham Clinton, in her farewell speech to State Department staff moments after she formally resigned as secretary of state, said, “We were attacked and lost one of our foreign-service nationals.”
The embassy in Ankara is heavily protected and near several others, including Germany’s and France’s.
Yesterday’s bombing occurred at a security checkpoint at a side entrance used by employees.
It follows the Sept. 11 attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, where the US ambassador and three other Americans were killed.