State Department Has Not Communicated With Turkey, Russia on Killing of Karlov

The Pentagon hasn't communicated Russia or Turkey regarding the killing of Russian Ambassador Andrey Karlov, the department's spokesman announced.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Secretary of State John Kerry and other US Department of State officials have not contacted Russian or Turkish counterparts about the assassination of Karlov, department spokesman John Kirby said in a briefing on Monday.

“No, not that I am aware of,” Kirby stated when asked if anyone from the State Department contacted Russia or Turkey about the shooting.

Kirby also said to reporters that the United States does not rule out that the assassination of the Russian Ambassador to Turkey was an act of terrorism.

"The US State Department is not ruling out the possibility that this is an act of terrorism," he said. "But I think that we also need to let the investigators do their work. It is still very much an active crime scene, and we are going to let that process proceed before making any conclusions."

The US embassy in Ankara was placed on lockdown because of the attack on Russian ambassador at an art gallery, the spokesman added.

"The order to lockdown and the security message was done specifically because of the shooting at the art gallery," Kirby said. "There was no other incident, no other threat at all."