Foreign Affairs chief: Assault on sailors ‘concerning’

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-Calif.) said an assault on three U.S. sailors in Turkey on Wednesday was “concerning.”

“What’s very, very concerning to us is that this particular ultra-nationalist group obviously pre-planned this attack,” Royce said in an interview Wednesday evening on CNN. 

{mosads}The three U.S. sailors assigned to the USS Ross were heckled and physically assaulted while wearing civilian clothes during a temporarily stop at a port in Istanbul.

The U.S. Navy announced earlier in the day that it was investigating the incident, caught on video and posted online. The video showed a small crowd heckling the sailors before throwing paint and attempting to wrap white bags over the sailors’ heads. The sailors returned to their ship uninjured.

“We find it ugly and disturbing and we condemn that attack, executed by what appeared to be thugs on the street,” Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren told reporters Wednesday.

The group was made up of about 20 self-identified members of the Turkish Youth Union, according to the Navy. A dozen were subsequently arrested, Turkish national television NTV reported. The U.S. Embassy in Ankara, Turkey, condemned the assault on Twitter, calling it “appalling.”

Royce said Turkish authorities “can reassure us” by making arrests and bringing charges against those responsible for the assaults. 

“It would be good if you heard the head of state in Turkey … speak out,” Royce said, adding the foreign leader’s rhetoric “has been increasingly anti-American in and of itself.”

Vice President Joe Biden is expected to visit Turkey next week to meet with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as part of a three-country swing through Morocco and Ukraine.