Roundup: Turkey remains defiant in face of deadly terror Ankara attack

Turkey's government vowed to not yield to the terror that struck the heart of the nation's capital Ankara on late Wednesday, killing at least 28 and injuring 61.

"Terror groups and those who staged this attack will never succeed," Turkish Deputy Prime Minister and Government Spokesperson Numan Kurtulmus told reporters.

He urged citizens to rally around the unity of the nation and called on the international community to condemn the terror in the strongest terms no matter where it comes from.

"Turkey has never given in the terror and will never do," Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag also told lawmakers in the Parliament.

In a written statement, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey will not hesitate to use its legitimate right of self-defense in the face of terror attacks.

The attack was staged by a bomb-laden automobile that struck military service buses transporting personnel which stopped at a traffic light at 18:31 local time (GMT 16:31), Turkish military said in a statement.

Casualties are expected to rise as the attack happened in a crowded area during the rush hour when government employees have just left or were about to leave their offices.

The blast set at least four buses ablaze, prompting firefighters to rush to the scene along with emergency services.

Civilians are also feared to be among those who lost their lives.

The scene of explosion is near the government buildings such as Turkish General Staff headquarters, offices of force commanders, the Prime Ministry and Parliament.

Turkey's broadcasting authority RTUK imposed a broadcasting ban on the explosion.

Ercan Tastekin, the head of the Ankara-based Research Center for Security Strategies, said the intelligence service must be held accountable for what he said a major failure in detecting the attack in advance.

"There must be so many people involved in planning and carrying out an attack in this scale in an area that should be the most secure spot in Turkish capital," he remarked.

Mumtazer Turkone, a professor of political science, said the attack appears to have been very well planned.

"It shows a serious breach of security and intelligence failure," he added.

No organization has so far claimed responsibility for the attack, according to Kurtulmus.

Tastekin urged the public to remain calm and pledged that the government will find out who were responsible for the attack.

The government has immediately assigned seven prosecutors to investigate the incident.

Some suggested that the outlawed Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) or the Islamic State (IS) might have planned the attack.

Both groups are listed as terrorist organizations in Turkey.

The PKK has resumed violence against the Turkish government after the peace process collapsed last summer.

The Turkish security forces have been fighting with the PKK in battleground towns and cities in the southeast since December.

Turkey is also a front-line country in the U.S.-led coalition against the IS terror threat.

Turkey's NATO allies, including the U.S., Britain and Germany, have deployed fighter jets to Incirlik base in Turkish province Adana near Syria border.

Wednesday's attack is not the first deadly terror incident in Turkey.

In January, a suspected IS suicide bomber killed 11 German tourists and injured 15 in Istanbul's historic old city Sultanahmet Square.

On Oct. 10 last year, twin suicide bombings in Ankara killed 102 people and injured hundreds, the deadliest single act of terrorism on Turkish soil. An explosion that took place in the Suruc district of southeastern Sanliurfa province on July 20, 2015, killed 34.

These attacks are believed to have been carried out by the IS militants.

Erdogan convened a security meeting on late Wednesday and canceled his planned trip to Azerbaijan, while Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu also canceled the travel to Brussels. Endit