ANKARA — 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.
There has been growing anger against Erdogan and the government for alleged security lapses over the worst attack in modern Turkey's history in which two suicide bombers blew themselves up in a crowd of peace activists on Saturday.
Announcing the first dismissals in the wake of the disaster, the Interior Ministry said Ankara police chief 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.
"There must undoubtedly be a mistake, a shortcoming in some place. Of what dimension? This will emerge after examinations," he told reporters late Tuesday.
He said he ordered the State Supervisory Council (DDK), an inspection body attached to the presidency, to undertake a special investigation "to handle (the attack) from a different perspective".
The attack has raised political tensions to new highs as Turkey prepares for a snap election on Nov. 1, with polarization within the country now greater than ever. The bombing targeted thousands of people gathering for a peace rally of union, leftist and Kurdish activists criticizing the government's current offensive against Kurdish militants.
The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), which lost several members in the blasts, has accused the authorities of, at the very least, severe negligence over the bombings.
In protests after the blasts, demonstrators have held up banners such as "killer Erdogan" and "we know the killer!". The authorities have angrily ridiculed claims of state complicity.
The government has said Daesh (the so-called IS) group is the prime suspect behind the bombings, which also injured more than 500 people.
Erdogan has said the attack had its roots in Syria, where Daesh militants have captured swathes of territory up to the Turkish border.
There have been growing indications that the authorities are focusing on possible parallels or even links to a July 20 bombing at a peace rally in Suruc on the Syrian border that killed 34 people.
The government blamed Daesh for that attack, which also targeted a gathering of pro-Kurdish and leftist activists.
The Hurriyet daily reported that the authorities now believe one of the Ankara suicide bombers was Yunus Emre Alagoz, the brother of the Suruc bomber Abdurrahman Alagoz.
