A large explosion was heard near a Turkish Defence Ministry building in the capital Ankara on Monday, the state-run Anatolian news agency said, but it was not immediately clear what caused the blast. The blast occurred in a building used by the Turkish Defence Ministry, including for NATO purposes, Anatolian said. Ankara police said they had no information. A series of small bombings despite unprecedented security has rocked Muslim Turkey ahead of the summit. A bomb last Thursday killed four people and Turkey's largest left-wing faction, the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C), claimed responsibility for that attack in a statement sent to Reuters. Violent protests have also erupted during the summit, which began on Monday and concludes on Tuesday. In Istanbul, more than 30 people were injured and dozens arrested on Monday in left-wing demonstrations held far from the venue of the alliance summit. The recent bombings have sent a shudder through Turkey which suffered four devastating suicide bomb attacks in November that killed more than 60 people and wounded hundreds more. Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network claimed responsibility for those attacks, which targeted Jewish and British sites in Istanbul.
| As they say, breaking. Keep your head down, Murat. |
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