Turkey Thwarts Attack on Police Headquarters in Ankara

Turkish security forces thwarted what they called a terrorist attack on the national police headquarters on Sunday in the capital, Ankara, hours before Parliament was scheduled to reconvene nearby.

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said in a post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, that two assailants in a small commercial vehicle carried out a bomb attack on the gate to the headquarters. One blew himself up, and the other was killed in clashes with the police, he said. Two officers were lightly wounded.

It was not immediately clear who the attackers were, or if they belonged to a larger organization. Turkey has faced regular attacks in the past from Kurdish separatists, members of the Islamic State and other groups. But in recent years, such episodes have become rare and generally small.

Without suggesting who the attackers might have been, Mr. Yerlikaya said Turkey would maintain its security. “Our relentless struggle will continue until the last terrorist is neutralized,” he wrote.

The blast resonated in Ankara, where residents posted on social media that they had heard gunfire. The security forces quickly cordoned off the blast site and kept journalists away.

The attack took place near key government buildings. The police headquarters is in the same building as the Interior Ministry, which oversees domestic security.

The Parliament building is nearby and was scheduled to reopen on Sunday afternoon after its summer recess with a speech by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. It was not immediately clear if the attack was connected to Parliament’s resumption, and it appeared that the opening would proceed as planned.

NTV, a Turkish broadcaster, said the Parliament building had been closed while security forces searched for bombs.

NTV reported that the vehicle had tried to enter the building’s gate but was stopped by police roadblocks. The attackers opened fire, it said, and at least one of them got out of the car and blew himself up. The second assailant was also wearing a bomb, which the police detonated in a controlled manner after killing the attacker, according to the Interior Ministry.

The attack was the first in Ankara in a number of years. Last November, a bombing that the government accused Kurdish militants of orchestrating killed six people and wounded dozens of others on a busy pedestrian street in Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city.