US embassy in Turkey targeted

Turkish authorities detained two men suspected of shooting at the US Embassy in the capital Ankara yesterday, in an attack that coincides with increased tensions between the two NATO allies over the trial of a US pastor in Turkey.

Nobody was hurt in the attack, which President Tayyip Erdogan’s spokesman condemned as an attempt “to create chaos”. The Turkish Foreign Ministry said it had increased security for the embassy and other US missions and employees in Turkey.

The assailants fired six bullets at an embassy security gate from a passing white vehicle around 0530 am local time (0230 GMT), three bullets hitting an iron door and a window, the Ankara governor’s office said.