Police fatally wound suspected suicide bomber

Turkish police shot dead a 25-year-old suspected radical left-wing militant said to be a would-be suicide bomber yesterday as he ran out of the Justice Ministry building in Ankara, reported news agencies.

The assailant, identified as Eyüp Beyaz, was a suspected member of the outlawed extreme-left Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C). Police had been searching for him for more than two years, reported the Anatolia news agency.

 Earlier reports said he was carrying identification in the name of Muharrem Akyurt.

Reporting from television footage, The Associated Press said a special forces police officer shot the already wounded Beyaz several times at close range as he lay in the street in front of the building. Reports said the man was attempting to detonate a bomb strapped to his body while on the ground.

Reports said the man was trying to enter the Justice Ministry through the staff entrance, where a metal detector was activated, indicating the possible presence of explosives. He was immediately overpowered and handcuffed by security officers.

Justice Minister Cemil Çiçek said the man was posing as a visitor and had tried to detonate a bomb strapped onto himself when he was stopped by security.

The bomb failed to explode, but the detonator itself made an explosive sound that startled police, Anatolia said. Beyaz, taking advantage of the confusion, ran out of the building.

Footage on NTV and CNN-Türk showed that the man was shot, while handcuffed, at the entrance to Güven Park, some 50 meters from the ministry building. It showed the bomber lying on the ground with his head moving, but later broadcasts reported that he died.

The body lay in the park for more than an hour and a half as bomb disposal experts and forensic scientists inspected the scene, with dozens of officers keeping passers-by away, an AFP reporter said.

Police cordoned off the area in front of the Justice Ministry, and a member of the bomb squad, wearing protective clothing, removed the suspect's shirt, revealing a tan-colored cylinder with wires protruding from it.

The shooting took place in one of the busiest parts of Ankara, which is also home to several government ministries, in a crowded park abutting the city's main thorofare, Atatürk Boulevard.

The Prime Ministry, the Education Ministry, the Court of Appeals and several other government buildings are in the area adjacent to the city's central Kızılay Square.

"The event is a police matter and doesn't affect our duties," Çiçek told reporters after the incident.

Holding a press conference later, Çiçek also emphasized that, despite unwanted incidents like this, it should not be forgotten that Turkey has been working hard to improve human rights in the country.

"Police, exercising professionalism and care, first fired shots into the air to scare him and prevent harm, but he ran towards a crowded area with a bomb strapped to himself. He was shot and lost his life," Çiçek said.

Last year, dozens of suspected DHKP-C militants were detained in coordinated raids in Turkey, Belgium, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands.

The group is accused of masterminding a deadly wave of hunger strikes among left-wing prisoners, and their friends and families, to protest transfers to new high-security jails. The hunger strikes resulted in nearly 70 deaths since its inception in 2000.