No group has claimed responsibility for the attack on a major defence company near the capital Ankara
\n Ankara
\nThree people have been killed and five others wounded in an attack on the headquarters of Turkey\u2019s aerospace and defence company TUSAS near the capital Ankara, a local official has confirmed.
\nSelim Cirpanoglu, the mayor of Kahramankazan province, provided the details during an interview with the Turkish TV channel Tele1. Turkey\u2019s interior minister, Ali Yerlikaya, had earlier announced the attack had resulted in multiple casualties.
\n\u201cA terrorist attack was carried out against the Turkish Aerospace Industries Ankara Kahramankazan facilities,\u201d Yerlikaya wrote in a social media post, without providing further details.
\nFootage from the scene broadcast by local media initially showed huge clouds of smoke and a large fire raging at the site in Kahramankazan, a small town some 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of Ankara. Media have reported a loud explosion at the site and showed footage of an exchange of gunfire there.
\nSecurity camera images from the attack, aired on television, showed a man in plainclothes carrying a backpack and holding an assault rifle.
\nAt least one woman, also carrying an assault rifle, was among the assailants, according to the images.
\n\u201cHaving looked at the images and spoken with sources, we\u2019re talking about three attackers,\u201d said Al Jazeera\u2019s Sinem Koseoglu, reporting from Ankara. \u201cThere are claims that attackers who infiltrated took some of the workers as hostage, but we don\u2019t have further details\u201d she said, adding that 15,000 people work at the company\u2019s campus in Kahramankazan.
\n\u201cApparently, the attackers had shown information about the building, about the entrances,\u201d Koseoglu continued, explaining that the attackers approached the employees\u2019 entrance. \u201cMany of the experts now suggest that this was a strategically planned terrorist attack.\u201d
\nThere has been no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but Turkey has previously experienced attacks by ISIL (ISIS) and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers\u2019 Party (PKK).
\nEmergency services were dispatched to the site, state-owned Anadolu Agency reported.
\n\u201cDeeply concerning reports of dead and wounded in Ankara,\u201d said NATO head Mark Rutte in a post on X.
\n\u201cNATO stands with our ally Turkey. We strongly condemn terrorism in all its forms and are monitoring developments closely,\u201d he added.
\nTUSAS is one of Turkey\u2019s most important defence and aviation companies. It produces KAAN, the country\u2019s first national combat aircraft, among other projects.
\nThe blast occurred as a major trade fair for the defence and aerospace industries was taking place in Istanbul which was visited this week by Ukraine\u2019s top diplomat.
\nTurkey\u2019s defence sector, which is widely known for its Bayraktar drones, accounts for nearly 80 percent of the nation\u2019s export revenues with revenues expected to top 10.2 billion dollars in 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack on a major defence company near the capital Ankara Ankara Three people have been killed and five others wounded in an attack on the headquarters of Turkey\u2019s aerospace and defence company TUSAS near the capital Ankara, a local official has confirmed. Selim Cirpanoglu, the mayor of Kahramankazan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":439113,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-439096","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n