Turkish police bomb experts inspect the site of the Ankara US embassy bombing
Turkish police bomb experts inspect the site of the Ankara US embassy bombing. (Reuters) Reuters

A Turkish left-wing group has claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing of a US embassy.

On their website People's Cry, radical group the Revolutionary People's Liberation Army or DHKP-C said: "Our warrior Alisan Sanli carried out an act of self-sacrifice on 1 Feb 2013, by entering the Ankara embassy of the United States, murderer of the peoples of the world."

The statement was posted next to what was apparently a picture of the bomber, dressed in black military style fatigues, a black beret and wearing what appears to be an explosives belt.

They said the attack was retaliation for US policy in Iraq, Syria, Egypt and Libya.

In the attack the bomber entered the gatehouse of the embassy and blew up six kilos of TNT he was carrying with an electric detonator as well as exploding a hand grenade, killing himself and a security guard, and injuring a journalist on her way to interview the ambassador.

Earlier, the Ankara governor's office said that DNA tests confirmed that Sanli was responsible for the attack.

Sanli is thought to have received bomb making training somewhere in Europe in the 1990s, according to Hasam Selim Ozertem, a security expert at the International Strategic Research Organisation in Ankara.

He then returned to Turkey in 1997 and was involved in attacks on police bases and against senior military officials using anti-tank weapons before being arrested and imprisoned. In jail, he went on hunger strike and was released in 2001 because he suffered from a neurological disorder.

He left Turkey for Germany, before re-entering the country illegally.

The DHKP-C group is believed to be behind the assassination of a number of high-profile security and business officials, including former justice minister Mehmet Topac, who was killed in 1994.

The attack bears a resemblance to a suicide attack on an Istanbul police station last year in which an officer and the attacker were killed.

Security analysts consulted by CNN said they do not believe the group has the capacity to sustain a long-term terrorism campaign.