WASHINGTON
US State Department Spokesperson Victoria Nuland said Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton held a telephone conversation over the suicide bombing at the US Embassy in the Turkish capital, adding that the two top diplomats reiterated commitment for cooperation against terrorism.
"In the conversation with Foreign Minister Davutoglu, she obviously expressed condolences for the loss of life. Davutoglu expressed grave concern for the fact that this had happened. She also thanked him for the absolutely excellent cooperation that we've had from Turkish law enforcement. Let me just underscore that point. Turkish national police, in particular, responded immediately and have been cooperating superbly with us," Nuland told a daily press briefing.
Nuland said Davutoglu and Clinton had committed to the strong and ongoing counterterrorism partnership between the US and Turkey.
"This incident obviously underscores the requirement that we stay very closely lashed up on all of these kinds of issues, not just the investigation of this incident, but counterterrorism more broadly across the region," Nuland said.
Nuland said Sen. John Kerry, who is set to assume office as the next secretary of state, and his staff were briefed in real time.
The spokesperson said the US Embassy in Ankara was on a list of the US diplomatic posts to have a new embassy compound in the future.
The suicide blast Friday at a checkpoint outside the embassy compound killed the bomber and a security guard as well as seriously wounding a Turkish woman, a respected journalist.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said DHKP-C, an outlawed leftist group in Turkey, was responsible for the attack.
The group recognized as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US and the European Union.
