Witnesses say a brawl outside the Turkish Embassy in Washington, D.C, that injured 11 people Tuesday night started when members of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s security force attacked protesters.
Two arrests were made at the scene: one for aggravated assault and one for assault on a police officer, Fox News reported. One of the 11 people hurt in the brawl was a police officer responding to the scene.
Police said they intend to pursue charges against others involved in the fight and would work with the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Secret Service to identify those involved, Fox News reported.
The fighting began outside the embassy residence of President Erdogan, who was in the U.S. to meet with President Donald Trump, and spilled over into a park across the street as police worked to subdue the crowd and restore order, according to The New York Times.
Arizona Sen. John McCain tweeted about the incident, saying there was “no excuse for this kind of thuggish behavior” in the United States of America.
Others on Twitter wondered if Trump would condemn the brawling and why the police didn’t more actively break it up and arrest more people.
This brawl follows another incident last year outside the Brookings Institution in Washington in which Erdogan’s bodyguards were said to have treated protesters roughly and tried to drag “undesired” journalists away from the scene, the Times reported.
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