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| Security door blown out of concrete wall |
The New York Times had good coverage of today's tragic attack in Ankara which took the life of one of the embassy's local guards:
News photographs of the explosion site showed extensive damage to a squat one-story building just inside the compound where visitors are checked by security guards and an X-ray machine. Turkish news media said preliminary investigations by security officials said the bomber might have detonated a suicide belt prematurely as he was going through security controls. NTV, a private television broadcaster, said embassy security cameras had shown the assailant entering and panicking as he walked through an X-ray machine.
The other fatality in the blast was identified as Mustafa Akarsu, 47, one of the Turkish security guards at the embassy.
That "squat one-story building" is shown in the photo above. Notice that the building's heavy steel security door was blown partly out of the surrounding concrete wall by the force of the blast, and that the adjacent security windows are damaged but still intact. That tells the story - the hardened building in which visitors are screened contained the bomb blast, preventing what would most likely have been greater loss of life and injuries to embassy employees and visitors.
The State Department spokeswoman noted just that in her remarks quoted in the WaPo:
“The level of security protection at our facility in Ankara ensured that there were not significantly more deaths and injuries than there could have been,” Nuland told reporters in Washington.
“This is one of the compounds where we have been making steady security upgrades over the last decade,” Nuland said. “And in fact, the attack was at one of the exterior compound access sites. So it was far from the main building, and it was a result of the way that was hardened that we only lost the one local security guard. And in fact, there were other security guards inside the building behind the glass who were only shaken up by this.”
It will be no consolation to the family and friends of Mustafa Akarsu, but the Department can take some satisfaction from knowing that its security upgrades minimized the damage today.
15 comments:
Looking at the door/window frame and building in the photo shows it did take a pretty good lick. Note though the fixture directly above attached to the wall is almost unmarked. I realize that an explosive belts main force would go out not up, but alot of the blast should have traveled up the wall.
It's hard to know what blast forces might do, especially inside a confined space where the waves will reflect off of surfaces. Given the crowded location, with employees and visitors all around, it was probably for the best that it was contained inside a building made of concrete and steel with laminated polycarbonate windows.
This building was the first screening point for visitors and the public, so I don't see how this kind of attack can feasibly be prevented so long as our embassy is open for business. If it can't be prevented, then the next best thing is hardening buildings to minimize the damage a bomb will do. That's not much, but it's something and it helps.
Looking at it again I see the explosion was inside the door blowing it outward. This also peeled the stone veneer above the door up and out. You can see the door frame anchors and they don't look sheared but pulled out of their emplacements. I can't tell from the photo but it seems to be a door with a left side lite (window). I wonder if they have blast diverters in those entry rooms?
James - they are usually just simple rooms with an entry and an exit side, and airport-type screening equipment. No sophisticated design, at least not for old embassies that predate current security standards and have to be upgraded, like Ankara.
Bet that room was real lovely to clean up.
Try it again. Bet the room was a nice mess to clean up.
TSB: Speaking of security, it's Super
Bowl Sunday..No terror warnings this year? Also, I've been seeing lots of views of the roof of the WHouse lately. I have a theory that it's completely indefensible from any type of high speed projectile. gwb
GWB: I'm sure you're right abut the White House roof, but the building has had massive renovations since the Truman years, so it's now like a concrete bunker with the facade of the original WH around it. If it were hit by an aircraft, I think the result would be superficial damage.
TSB: That's interesting to know. I don't remember seeing pictures of that kind of work. Probably that adds to the urgency of repairing the crumbling foundation beneath the oval office area due to the increased weight. gwb
GWB: The administration made information available about the most recent (2010) WH construction. That kind of 'continuity of government' stuff used to be highly classified:
http://whitehouse.gov1.info/tunnel/index.html
The WH was reconstructed during the Truman years, when they basically turned it into a modern concrete building with a historic shell.
Thanks for the WH security tour TSB. That was exactly what I was wondering about. So there is a separate subway alongside the public subway and it could (classified) connect all the classified areas in the DC area and go all the way to Camp David?
BTW:my wife discovered that stratfor reports rumors that at Pemex 1 of 3 high explosive bombs went off and the other 2 were found intact. gwb
GWB: Right, a secret subway that connects most federal cabinet buildings and will someday run all the way to Mount Weather (formerly secret government wartime location deep in Virginia). They've been digging like badgers for decades. I love the escape hatch under the Oval Office desk! Obama is like Batman with his high tech cave beneath stately Wayne Manor.
GWB: On the Pemex building, I was in that building's top floor conference room a couple years ago, and I could have sworn it was about to fall down just from a windy day. I'm amazed it didn't collapse after that explosion.
lol TSB: Those tunnels are impressive! The Mexican AG is now saying it was a big methane gas burp that caused the explosion. My sources are telling me Beyonce has been banned from performing in Mexico City. gwb
Speaking of lax security it appears the Fed has admitted it was hacked and downloaded on Sunday. Let's see, that makes IMF, DOJ, FED now under a bit of blackmail pressure! gwb
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-02-05/fed-confirms-it-was-hacked-anonymous
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