Suicide bomber shot dead

TURKISH police shot and killed a suspected leftist suicide bomber who tried to detonate his bomb inside the Justice Ministry yesterday and then fled.

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.

Justice Minister Cemil Cicek said the bomb was strapped to the bomber.

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 coloured cylinder with wires coming out of it. The demolitions expert defused the bomb about 10 minutes later.

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

Cicek said the bomber was shot dead because he was running toward a crowded street.

“Police, exercising sensitivity and care, first fired shots in the air to scare him and prevent a graver incident, but despite this he ran toward a crowded area. He was shot and lost his life,” Cicek said.

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.

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.

The man had earlier posed as a visitor to the Justice Ministry and tried to detonate the bomb strapped onto him when he was stopped by security.