(JTA) — Turkish police detained a man who fired a shotgun in the air in front of the U.S. Embassy in Ankara several hours after the attack that killed the Russian ambassador in the arts center directly across the street.
As he was taken away early Tuesday morning, the man cursed and shouted, “Don’t play with us,” the Turkish media reported.
The embassy announced that it would be closed for operations, as would the consulates in Istanbul and Adana in southern Turkey.
Hours after Russian envoy Andrey Karlov was killed Monday, Israel condemned the assassination in an attack described as an act of terror.
“The murder of a diplomat serves as a stark reminder of the need for the civilized world to come together in fighting the forces of terrorism,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.
Karlov was assassinated by a 22-year-old Turkish policeman while visiting an exhibition of Russian photographs. The attacker shouted “Don’t forget Aleppo. Don’t forget Syria” in Turkish, and “Allahu Akbar,” or “God is great,” in Arabic, apparently referring to Russian airstrikes on rebels in Aleppo as part of the Syrian conflict. Police killed the shooter inside the exhibition hall.
The Syrian forces of Syrian President Bashar Assad in recent weeks have retaken the besieged city of Aleppo from rebel forces in the country’s nearly six-year-long civil war. Russia has remained one of Syria’s closest allies.
