ANKARA, Turkey — The suicide bomber who struck the U.S. Embassy in Ankara spent several years in prison on terrorism charges but was released on probation with a hunger strike-related brain disorder, officials said.

The bomber, identified as 40-year-old leftist militant Ecevit Sanli, killed himself and a Turkish security guard on Friday, in what U.S. officials said was a terrorist attack. Sanli was armed with enough TNT to blow up a two-story building and also detonated a hand grenade, officials said.

Sanli had fled Turkey after he was released from jail in 2001, but managed to come back to the country “illegally,” using a fake ID, Interior Muammer Guler said.

Sanli had been a member of the outlawed Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front, or DHKP-C, which has claimed responsibility for assassinations and bombings since the 1970s.



Illegal fireworks

blamed for blast

BEIJING — A truck that exploded and caused an elevated stretch of highway to collapse in central China, killing 10 people, was loaded with holiday fireworks that were illegally produced and transported, authorities said Saturday.

Local authorities have shut down the company that made the fireworks, Hongsheng Fireworks Manufacturing Co. Ltd., and detained four company officials following Friday’s blast, state media reported.

—The Associated Press

The Ministry of Public Security said Hongsheng, based in the neighboring province of Shaanxi, had illegally produced the explosives, packaged them in disguise and contracted with a trucking company unlicensed to handle hazardous commodities.