Nine people were injured and two arrests were made Tuesday afternoon during a brawl outside the Turkish Embassy in Washington, D.C.
The incident, which was captured on video, occurred hours after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with President Donald Trump at the White House.
Witnesses told the Guardian that the violent clash started when Erdogan's security detail attacked protesters carrying the flag of the Kurdish PYD party outside the embassy.
Turkey has been engaged in an internal conflict with Kurdish insurgent groups for decades.
Metropolitan Police Department spokesman Dustin Sternbeck said the fighting broke out between two groups but would not elaborate on what led to the altercation. The department announced Wednesday it's seeking to identify the assailants.
Video of the brawl shows two groups that were separated by the street with some police officers standing between them. One group appeared to charge past the police and across the street, where they beat the protesters as police rushed to intervene. Many protesters fled across the park they were assembled in.
Men and women were on the ground trying to shield themselves as men primarily in suits, alleged by some to be Erdogan's bodyguards, beat and kicked the protesters.
Police ordered those who crossed the street, some of whom appeared to be holding Turkish flags, back to the side of the embassy, while protesters were being taken by police.
A demonstration outside the Turkish Embassy in northwest Washington led to nine people being injured, and two arrested pic.twitter.com/6SQTlQAUaa
— The Voice of America (@VOANews) May 17, 2017
#Erdoğan'ın korumaları kavgaya karıştı https://t.co/gsi1iQ68Ye #amerikaninsesi pic.twitter.com/Jv3g5E7AVA
— Amerika'nın Sesi (@VOATurkish) May 17, 2017
"All of the sudden they just ran towards us," Yazidi Kurd demonstrator Lucy Usoyan told ABC. She said an Erdogan supporter attacked her.
"Someone was beating me in the head nonstop, and I thought, 'OK, I'm on the ground already, what is the purpose to beat me," she added.
Erdogan has been criticized for cracking down on protesters and other critical voices, including journalists, inside Turkey. The Turkish people recently passed a referendum that granted Erdogan expansive powers in a new presidential system of government. Some election monitors charged that there were voting irregularities.
UPDATE: 1:30 P.M.: This article has been updated to reflect the department's announcement that it's trying to identify the assailants.