Terrorist attack on state-owned Turkish Aerospace Industries kills at least 3 people, official says

Ankara — A huge explosion outside the headquarters of Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) near Ankara left at least several people dead and others wounded, Turkey’s interior minister said Wednesday, describing it as a “terrorist attack.”

“A terrorist attack was carried out against the Turkish Aerospace Industries… Unfortunately, we have martyrs and injured people,” Ali Yerlikaya wrote on X after local media reported a blast and shooting outside the site some 25 miles outside Ankara. 

Yerlikaya said in a subsequent social media post that three people were killed and 14 injured in the attack, in addition to “two terrorists” she said were killed.  

TAI is owned by Turkey’s government and military.

Video from the scene broadcast by local media showed huge clouds of smoke and a large fire raging at the site in Kahramankazan, a small town about 25 miles north of Ankara.

Haberturk TV said there was an ongoing “hostage situation,” without giving further details, while the private NTV television spoke of gunshots after an initial explosion at about 4 p.m. local time (8 a.m. Eastern).

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. Turkey has battled Kurdish insurgents based in the south of the country for decades. Turkish forces have conducted numerous cross-border offensives against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and its allied group, the YPG, in northern Iraq and Syria in recent years.

The PKK is designated as a terrorist group by Turkey, the U.S. and the European Union, and its battle against the Turkish government has left tens of thousands of people dead since the mid 1980s.

The attack near Ankara on Wednesday came as a major trade fair for the defense and aerospace industries was taking place in Istanbul, which was visited this week by Ukraine’s top diplomat.

Turkey’s defence sector, which is widely known for its Bayraktar drones, accounts for nearly 80% of the nation’s export revenues with revenues expected to top 10.2 billion dollars in 2023. The drones are not manufactured by TAI.