The attack sounds amateurish at best but it still resulted in the death of three Turkish police officers:
The attack was “an obvious act of terrorism” aimed at the United States, the country’s ambassador to Turkey said.
“This was an attack on an American diplomatic establishment. The persons who lost their lives are Turkish citizens and we are very sad about that,” Ross Wilson told reporters in Ankara.
The three assailants jumped from a car and opened fire at the police checkpoint around 11:00am (0800 GMT), officials told reporters, adding that they also fired shots at the building. The security forces returned fire, killing all three gunmen.
Wilson said security measures were beefed up at the consulate as well as at the US embassy in Ankara and the consulate in the southern city of Adana, near which a major Turkish air base is often used by US aircraft.
“We remain a close friend and ally of Turkey. Well not be deterred in any way by terrorists who are seeking to strike at us or at US-Turkish relations,” the ambassador said.
“Our countries stand together in the fight against international terrorism…. We will confront this as we have confronted similar problems in the past,” he added.
The consulate is quite secure so it is possible that the police and security personnel outside of the building were the actual targets:
Journalist Dorian Jones, in Istanbul, told Sky News: “It’s unclear whether this was an attack on the American consulate itself or on the police.
“There are always police standing outside so it’s an easy target for people who want to attack the police.
“There is a whole variety of groups that have grievances in Turkey and have used violence. No one is clear yet what the motive for this attack was or who carried it out.”
Oddly, there are no State Department travel warnings or alerts posted for Turkey. However, the Australian government is advising it’s citizens to reconsider travel to the country.
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