ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A suicide bomber detonated an explosive Friday in front of the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, killing himself and a guard at the entrance gate, officials said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Turkey's interior minister, Muammer Guler, said the bomber was likely connected to a domestic left-wing militant group. He did not explain why.

A Turkish woman was also seriously wounded and two other guards sustained lighter wounds in the 1:15 p.m. blast in the Turkish capital, Guler told reporters.

A police official, meanwhile, told The Associated Press that the bomber is most likely a suspected member of the outlawed Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not permitted to speak to the press.

The group has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States but had been relatively quiet in recent years.

The explosion occurred inside the security checkpoint at the side entrance to the U.S. embassy, which was being used by staff. A guard standing outside the checkpoint was killed and while the two other guards "were standing in a more protected area," Guler said.

Police and ambulances swarmed the area and authorities immediately cordoned it off.

TV footage showed the embassy door blown off its hinges. The windows of nearby businesses were also shattered by the power of the blast, and debris littered the ground and across the road. The inside of the embassy did not appear to be damaged.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the attack demonstrated a need for international cooperation against terrorism and was aimed at disturbing Turkey's "peace and prosperity."

"But we will stand firm and we will overcome this together," he said.

In a statement, the U.S. Embassy thanked Turkey for "its solidarity and outrage over the incident."

The embassy building is heavily protected and located near several other embassies in Ankara, including that of Germany and France. The Hurriyet newspaper said staff at the embassy took shelter in "safe room" inside the compound soon after the explosion.

Guler identified the injured woman as 38-year-old Didem Tuncay, a television journalist and a hospital official said she was "not in a critical condition." News reports said she was at the embassy to get a U.S. visa.

"We can confirm a terrorist blast at a check point on the perimeter of our embassy compound inAnkara, Turkey, at 1:13 p.m. local time," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in Washington.

"We are working closely with the Turkish national police to make a full assessment of the damage and the casualties, and to begin an investigation," she said.

Turkish police were examining security cameras around the embassy.

U.S. diplomatic facilities in Turkey have been targeted previously by terrorists. In 2008, an attack blamed on al-Qaida-affiliated militants outside the U.S. Consulate in Istanbul left three assailants and three policemen dead.

Elsewhere, terrorists attacked a U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11 last year, killing U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. The attackers in Libya were suspected to have ties to Islamist extremists, and one is in custody in Egypt.

Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague condemned Friday's attack "in the strongest terms," and said Turkey and the U.S. will get the U.K.'s full support as they seek to hold those responsible to account.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, speaking to reporters during a visit to Belgrade, Serbia, said he was saddened that the attacked had occurred in Turkey.

"We have always shown great sensitivity to the protection of foreign missions and we will continue to do so," he said.

Homegrown Islamic militants tied to al-Qaida have also carried out suicide bombings in Istanbul, Turkey's bustling commercial center. In a 2003 attack on the British consulate, a suspected Islamic militant rammed an explosive-laden pickup truck into the main gate, killing 58 people, including the British consul-general.

Turkey is also being deeply affected by the brutal civil war in neighboring Syria, and has become a harsh critic of President Bashar Assad's regime there. The war has left at least 60,000 people dead so far, according to the U.N., and Turkey is sheltering tens of thousands of Syrian refugees.

The first of six Patriot missile batteries being deployed to Turkey to protect the country against attack from Syria was just declared operational and placed under NATO command. Others are expected to become operational in the coming days.

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Associated Press writer Ezgi Akin contributed to the report.

French soldiers are watched by local people, as they drive through the city streets of Timbuktu, Mali, Thursday Jan. 31, 2013. Many things have changed in Timbuktu since the Islamic militants ceased to enforce their law and relinquished power to French special forces who parachuted in several days ago, liberating this storied city, and now there is a growing sense of freedom. (AP Photo/Harouna Traore)

TIMBUKTU, Mali (AP) — Three suspected jihadists arrested in the days since the liberation of the town of Timbuktu said Friday that Malian soldiers were torturing them with a method similar to waterboarding.

The three are being held in an earthen cell in what remains of the military camp in Timbuktu, which was freed earlier this week by French and Malian soldiers after nearly 10 months under the rule of radical Islamists.

The men, who were tied together with a turban and one handcuff, all acknowledged to The Associated Press having been members of the al-Qaida-linked group known as Ansar Dine, or Defenders of the Faith.

"To force me to talk they poured 40 liters of water in my mouth and over my nostrils which made it so that I could not breathe anymore. For a moment I thought I was even going to die," said one of the men, who gave his name as Ali Guindo and said he was from a village near the central Malian town of Niono.

"I sleep in the cold and every night they come pour freezing water over me. "

All three prisoners described similar treatment. Their account could not be independently verified. Soldiers holding the three asked reporters to leave after initially allowing journalists to speak with them.

Army Col. Mamary Camara told reporters that the three were arrested by Malian forces in the town of Lere, and he said that one of the men was from Libya and was caught wearing a foreign military uniform.

The Libyan jihadist was visibly frightened, crouching in a corner of his cell. He gave the AP contradictory information about his background, first saying he was born in a Malian village but of Libyan descent.

Later, he said he was from Tripoli but has lived for years in Mali. He initially denied being part of Ansar Dine but later confirmed that he belonged to the movement though he denied having an important role.

The Malian military said that when he was arrested he was wearing a watch with a memory card inside that they said was used to communicate with other foreign jihadists.

The allegations of torture made public Friday in Timbuktu come as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International released reports Friday outlining other allegations of misconduct by the Malian military and Islamists over the last month.

Both groups said they had documented cases of Malian soldiers killing suspected Islamist supporters in Sevare on the eve of the French-led intervention. Human Rights Watch document at least 13 killings, though Amnesty said the number could be as high as two dozen.

Human Rights Watch said the witnesses described seeing soldiers at a bus station in Sevare interrogate passengers suspected of links to extremist groups. Those who did not produce the proper identification were taken away, the witnesses said.

"Before the soldiers marched them off, many of the detained men frantically tried to find someone in the crowd at the bus station who could vouch for them and verify their identity," the HRW report said. "They were driven or marched to a nearby field, where they were shot and their bodies dumped into one of four wells."

The Associated Press had earlier reported killings of civilians by the Malian army in Sevare, with bodies dumped into a well.

The Malian government has promised to investigate allegations of human rights abuses by its soldiers.

France has said that it eventually wants to hand over responsibility for the mission to the Malian army and other African counterparts.

Friday's reports also cited alleged human rights abuses committed by the Islamists. Human Rights Watch said Islamist rebels had killed at least seven Malian soldiers.

"One begged for his life saying, 'Please, in the name of God.' but they held him down and slit his throat," a witness told HRW. "Two days later, as we picked up the dead soldiers to bury them, the Islamists saw that five of them were still living. Most were gravely wounded but they were still breathing and should have been given a chance to live. Instead the Islamists killed them — one after the other."