As my colleagues Sebnem Arsu and Rick Gladstone report, a suicide bomber attacked the American Embassy in the Turkish capital Ankara on Friday, in a blast that officials said killed at least one Turkish citizen and wounded another at a side entrance to the compound.
A cameraman for the Turkish news agency Ihlas Haber Ajansı rushed to the scene, capturing raw video of the damage to the embassy’s perimeter and a brief glimpse of what appeared to be human flesh on the pavement. Some of that ..H.A. footage was used in a video report broadcast on Turkish television, showing a wounded person being loaded into an ambulance as police officers tried to cordon off the area.
As the blogger Serhatcan Yurdam reports, a woman named EsmaDinmezer posted a collection of photographs uploaded to Facebook showing first responders, officials and reporters outside the embassy later.
Another Turkish channel, TRT Haber, broadcast remarks by the United States ambassador, Francis J. Ricciardone, Jr., as he stood in front of the building beside Alaattin Yuksel, the governor of Ankara. (Readers can click ahead to about the 1:30 mark of the TRT report to hear the ambassador’s remarks, in Turkish and English.)
Speaking after the governor the American ambassador thanked the authorities for their prompt response, expressed sorrow at the death of a Turkish security guard and said his prayers were with the Turkish employee who was being treated for his wounds.
In his remarks, the Turkish official told reporters the explosion “happened inside the American Embassy.â€
