larawatson: Report: Turkish far-left group claims responsibility for US Embassy attack

SITE Intelligence Group via AFP - Getty Images

This image released by the SITE Intelligence Group on Feb. 2, shows a man identified as Ecevit Sanli on the website of the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front, a Turkey-based radical Marxist-Leninist group, that claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing at the U.S. Embassy in Ankara on Feb. 1.

By Becky Bratu, Staff Writer, NBC News

The Turkish far-leftist group DHKP-C claimed responsibility for a suicide bomb attack on the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, according to a statement on a website linked to the group, Reuters reported.

The statement posted Saturday on "The People's Cry" website said a man Turkish media identified as Ecevit Sanli carried out "an act of self-sacrifice on Feb. 1, 2013, by entering the Ankara embassy of the United States, murderer of the peoples of the world," according to Reuters.

A picture the website claimed was of the bomber was posted with the statement.

The Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front, or DHKPC, is a far-left group designated a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.

Also on Saturday, Turkish state media said officials detained three people in Istanbul and Ankara in connection with the attack, Reuters reported.

A suicide bomber blew himself up at an entrance to the U.S. Embassy compound in Ankara, Turkey, on Friday. The bomber and a Turkish guard were killed in the attack, which the U.S. described as "an act of terror."

The bomber, who was wearing a suicide vest, made it to the first X-ray machine in a screening area leading to the visa section, police sources said, and then detonated the device.

The Turkish security guard standing nearby was killed, but two guards on the other side of the checkpoint, behind bulletproof glass, survived. A Turkish journalist on her way to visit the ambassador was critically wounded.