A guard has died after a suicide bomber attacked the US embassy in the Turkish capital, police say. Source: AAP
A SUICIDE bomber suspected to be a militant from an outlawed leftwing group blew himself up at the US embassy in Ankara, killing a Turkish security guard and wounding several other people, officials say.
The bombing on Friday at a security roadblock near the entrance to the highly fortified embassy in an upmarket area of the capital was the latest in a series of attacks on American missions in the Muslim world, highlighting the vulnerability of the country's 70,000 diplomats.
US Vice President Joe Biden, on a visit to Germany, said the attack had been "characterised by our embassy as a terrorist attack" while the mission itself issued a travel warning to its nationals in Turkey.
Turkey's Interior Minister Muammer Guler told reporters the bomber blew himself up at a staff entrance to the compound.
"We lost one of the three guards at the entrance, while the two others survived with injuries," he said, adding that a female journalist was also seriously wounded.
He said the bomber was believed to be a member of an illegal "left wing terrorist organisation", without elaborating.
Local media identified the bomber as a member of the Revolutionary People's Liberation Front (DHKP-C), who had been jailed after a 1997 attack at a military compound in Istanbul.
Two weeks ago, Turkey carried out a major nationwide crackdown on the DHKP-C, a Marxist group blamed for several attacks since the late 1970s, including suicide bombings, but Guler did not confirm it was responsible.
DHKP-C is vehemently anti-US, anti-NATO, and anti-Turkish establishment.
However, there was no immediate claim of responsibility for what was the latest of many bloody attacks in Turkey which in the past have been blamed on Kurdish militants, leftist extremists or al-Qaeda linked groups.
"The attacks target the well-being and peace in our country," Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in televised remarks. "We will stand tall and we will stand together.. we will get over these."
The force of the blast damaged nearby buildings in the Cankaya neighbourhood of the capital where many other state institutions and embassies are also located.
Police cordoned off the area, while a police helicopter hovered in the air and armed US Marines patrolled the embassy roof.
Television footage showed the wounded journalist with a blood-stained face being carried into an ambulance on a stretcher.
US ambassador Francis Ricciardone vowed to work with Turkey to fight terror, confirming the death of the Turkish security guard and saying: "The compound is secure."
The embassy warned US citizens to avoid its diplomatic missions in Turkey until further notice and to avoid potential troublespots and demonstrations.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and his British counterpart William Hague condemned the Turkish bombing while German Chancellor Angela Merkel offered her sympathies to the victims.
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