A suicide bomber who attacked the U.S. Embassy in the Turkish capital spent four years in prison on terrorism charges prior to his release for a brain disorder contracted while on hunger strike, a Turkish official said Saturday.
The 40-year-old bomber, Ecevit Sanli, reportedly detonated an explosive device on the outside perimeter of the American Embassy in Ankara Friday, killing himself and an embassy guard in a terrorist attack whose motives are under investigation.
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The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that Sanli was arrested in 1997 for membership in the outlawed Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front, or DHKP-C, which has claimed responsibility for assassinations and bombings since the 1970s.
The group has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States but had been relatively quiet in recent years.
The attack was initially believed to be the work of either Al Qaeda or a proxy for Iran. Turkish officials, though, said the bombing was linked to leftist domestic militants.
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