A suicide bomber heading prime-minister’s office killed in Turkey

CNN Turk managed to shoot the scene of killing a suicide bomber heading prime-minister’s office. Television footage showed a Special Forces policeman shooting the already-wounded man several times at close range as he lay in the street in front of the building. Reports said the man was trying again to detonate the bomb while on the ground.

The shooting occurred about 10 a.m. (0700 GMT) Friday outside the Ministry of Justice in Ankara.

The man apparently tried to get into the Ministry of Justice building using a staff entrance, but a device believed to be a bomb on his body was detected by a machine, the ministry confirmed. He then apparently panicked and pulled the bomb's fuse, but it did not detonate. Authorities seized and handcuffed him, but he managed to escape and began running toward the prime minister's office, reports CNN.

Police cordoned off the area in front of the Justice Ministry and the suspect could be seen on the ground as a member of the bomb squad, wearing protective clothing, removed the man's shirt and then held up a tan colored cylinder with wires coming out of it. The demolitions expert defused the bomb about 10 minutes later, reports the AP.

The TV film showed the bomber on the ground with his head moving. Reports said he died soon afterward.

Police identified the dead man as Eyup Beyaz and said he was a member of the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front, or DHKP-C, an outlawed leftist group that aims to topple the government and replace it with a Marxist one. The group has been responsible for several bombings in the past.

The shooting took place in one of the busiest parts of Ankara, the Ministries neighborhood, in a crowded park abutting the city's main road, Ataturk Boulevard, and often used as a short cut between various busy thoroughfares in the area. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's offices, as well as the ministry of education, the appeals court and several other government buildings are in the area that neighbors the city's central Kizilay (Red Crescent) square, says AFP.

CNN-Turk television said Beyaz was wanted by police for planning two attacks: on the wedding of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's son in August 2003, and during a NATO summit meeting in Istanbul last year, when his leftist group claimed responsibility for a bomb explosion in a hotel in Ankara where US President George Bush was due to stay, before a NATO summit.

Initial reports identified the bomber as Muharrem Akyurt, the name that police said was on the false ID card he was carrying. When asked by reporters whether he may have been the target of the attack, Justice Minister Cemil Cicek refused to comment. "No, No, No, I won't say anything on the issue," he said.

Turkey has been clamping down on militant groups, some with suspected links to al-Qaeda.

Sixty-two people and hundreds were injured when two synagogues, the British consulate, and a branch of the HSBC bank were targeted by suicide bombers, reports BBC.