Two of the “terrorists” who attacked a defense company near Ankara on Wednesday have been “neutralized”, and security forces are searching for a third gunman, Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya has said
Three assailants stormed the Turkish Aerospace Industries (TUSAS) headquarters in a suburb of Ankara, killing four people and injuring 14 others, according to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
While the Turkish government has banned reporting from the scene of the incident, unverified videos posted on social media purportedly showed heavily armed special forces personnel storming the TUSAS facility less than an hour after the attack began.
Shortly afterwards, Yerlikaya announced that “two terrorists were neutralized”, and that “our struggle will continue with determination and resolve until the last terrorist is neutralized”.
One of the attackers was a woman, Yerlikaya told reporters, adding that she and a male accomplice had been killed. Unconfirmed reports suggest that the third attacker may have blown himself up.
“As soon as their identities are determined, we will share with you which terrorist organization it is,” the minister stated.
Terror attacks in Turkey are often the work of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a Kurdish militant group that has been involved in a low-intensity conflict with the Turkish state since the 1980s.
It is also unclear whether the assailants took any hostages. Turkish media outlets reported that some TUSAS employees had been taken captive, and an unconfirmed photo posted on social media showed around a dozen people purportedly detained inside the facility. However, neither Erdogan nor Yerlikaya has confirmed this.
