The Turkish interior ministry on Wednesday fired Ankara’s top police chief and two other officials as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan admitted security shortcomings may have led to a double suicide bombing in the capital that killed 97 people, AFP news agency reports.
There has been growing anger against Erdogan and the government for alleged security lapses over the worst attack in modern Turkey’s history Saturday where two suicide bombers blew themselves in a crowd of peace activists.
Announcing the first dismissals in the wake of the disaster, the interior ministry said the chief of Ankara police Kadri Kartal as well the head of the city’s police intelligence and security departments had been sacked.
It said they had been removed on the suggestion of investigators “to allow for a healthy investigation” into the atrocity.
In his first public remarks over the bombings, Erdogan admitted there were security shortcomings but said their magnitude would be made clear only later.