The Ankara Bomber: A Pro-Assad Communist
Mustafa Akyol profiles Ecevit Şanlı and the outlawed People's Revolutionary Liberation Army-Front (DHKP-C), one of Turkey's infamous Marxist-Leninist terror organizations, responsible for the suicide bombing at the US Embassy in Ankara on Feb. 1.
When the United States Embassy in Ankara was hit this Friday by a suicide bomber, it was widely presumed that this must be yet another al-Qaeda attack on an American target. It soon turned out, however, that the bomber, Ecevit Şanlı, 39, was a member of a radical communist group: The DHKP-C, or the outlawed People's Revolutionary Liberation Army-Front, which is one of Turkey's infamous Marxist-Leninist terror organizations.
This revelation came a few hours after the attack, when Interior Minister Muammer Güler informed the press that the bomber was identified thanks to the security cameras. He added that, unfortunately, the suicide bomber killed not only himself but also Mustafa Akarsu, 47, who was a security guard working at the embassy for 20 years and was hoping to retire soon to move to the United States with his daughters. A female journalist, Didem Tuncay, who just happened to be visiting the embassy at the moment, also got seriously injured.
