Shots were fired at the U. S. Embassy in Ankara, Turkey early Monday in an apparent drive-by shooting.
Shots were fired at the U. S. Embassy in Ankara, Turkey early Monday in an apparent drive-by shooting.
The shots were fired from a white car at the security booth outside Gate 6, Fox News reports. There were no injuries.
David Gainer, the embassy’s spokesman thanked the police for their “rapid response.”
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu called the attack “provocative” in a tweet. “We will make sure that this incident is investigated quickly and the perpetrators are brought to justice,” he wrote.
İbrahim Kalın, a presidential spokesman, also condemned the attack and reassured that “Turkey is a safe country and all foreign missions are under the protection of law.”
According to local news, a suspect is in custody.
The embassy closed this week for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.
The attack comes amid increased tensions between the two countries over the U. S. applying pressure to Turkey to free North Carolina Christian Pastor Andrew Brunson, who Turkey claims supported Kurdish militants and assisted in the 2016 coup against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The dispute has resulted in the U. S. applying sanctions to Turkey’s steel and aluminum imports, and Turkey boycotting U. S. electronic goods.
The U. S refused a deal to release the pastor in exchange for the U. S. dropping an investigation on Hallbank, one of largest state-owned Turkish banks that allegedly violated U. S sanctions on Iran, reports CNBC.
