Americas

Americas

U.S. condemns attack on embassy in Turkey

02 February 2013 00:12 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The Obama administration on Friday strongly denounced the deadly attack on the U.S. embassy in Ankara, Turkey, calling it an act of terror, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

"It is a terrorist attack," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters here. "We do not know at this point who is responsible or the motivations behind the attack. The attack itself is clearly an act of terror."

Washington was working "closely" with the Turkish authorities to investigate the attack and bring the perpetrators to justice, Carney said.

A suicide bomber struck a checkpoint on the perimeter of the American embassy in Ankara earlier in the day, killing a security guard and injuring seriously a visiting Turkish female reporter, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

"Clearly, it's a terrorist attack," Nuland said, noting "This was an individual wearing a suicide vest trying to come into our embassy compound."

She said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, before stepping down from her post, called her Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu over the attack, and both of them committed to the "strong and ongoing" counter-terrorism partnership between their countries.