On 1 October 2023, a suicide bombing occurred in front of the General Directorate of Security building in the Turkish capital Ankara, injuring two police officers.
[4] At around 09:30 TRT on 1 October 2023,[3] a light commercial vehicle[5] carrying two people arrived in front of the entrance gate of the General Directorate of Security of the Interior Ministry[2] on Atatürk Boulevard in Ankara.
[3] Turkish media reported that prior to their arrival, the attackers had hijacked the vehicle and shot and killed its driver, a 24-year old veterinarian who was driving in the countryside, in Kayseri, 260 kilometers (161 miles) south-east of Ankara, and dumped his body into a ditch by the side of the road.
[2] Ahmet Keser, head of Political Science and International Relations at Hasan Kalyoncu University in Gaziantep, said the attack was “a very well-organised terrorist incident” aimed to influence the Turkish parliament's decision on whether to accept Sweden's application to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in its autumn session.
[1] The bombing occurred hours before the Grand National Assembly of Turkey was set to open its autumn session in its building nearby.
[2] Leader of the Opposition Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu condemned the bombing, calling it a “terrorist attack” and vowed that Turkey would be united in fighting any such assaults from any source.
[11] The Turkish military conducted another round of airstrikes on 3 October, with the Defence Ministry claiming to have struck 16 PKK targets in the Metina, Gara, Hakurk, Qandil and Asos regions of northern Iraq.