US consulate in Turkey targeted as attacks kill 8 amid crackdown
Print Edition
Two women shot at the United States consulate in Istanbul yesterday and at least eight people were killed in a wave of separate attacks on Turkish security forces, weeks after Ankara launched a crackdown on Islamic State, Kurdish and far-left militants.
The NATO member has been in a heightened state of alert since starting its “synchronized war on terror” last month, including air strikes against IS fighters in Syria and Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in northern Iraq. It has also rounded up hundreds of suspected militants at home.
A far-left group that killed a Turkish security guard in a 2013 suicide bombing of the US embassy in Ankara claimed it was involved in yesterday's attack.
The Revolutionary People’s Liberation Army-Front (DHKP-C), considered a terrorist organization by the US and Turkey, said one of its members was involved in the attack, and called Washington the “arch enemy” of the people of the Middle East and the world.
Police with automatic rifles later cordoned off streets around the US consulate in the Sariyer district on the European side of Istanbul.
Ahmet Akcay, a resident who witnessed the attack, said that one of the women fired four or five rounds at security officials and consulate officers.
“Police were shouting ‘drop your bag, drop your bag’. And the woman was saying: ‘I will not surrender’,” Akcay said.
“The police warned her again: ‘Drop your bag or we will have to shoot you’, and the woman said: ‘Shoot’.”
One of the women was later captured injured, the Istanbul governor’s office said.
The Dogan news agency said the injured woman was aged 51 and had served prison time for being a suspected member of the DHKP-C.
“We are working with Turkish authorities to investigate the incident. The Consulate General remains closed to the public until further notice,” a consulate official said.
On the other side of Istanbul, a vehicle laden with explosives was used to attack a police station, injuring three policemen and seven civilians.
One of the attackers was killed during the bombing, while two others and a police officer died in a subsequent fire-fight, the Istanbul governor’s office said. Broadcaster CNN Turk said the officer was a senior member of the bomb squad who had been sent to investigate the attack.
Bosphorus waterway
Shooting continued into yesterday morning in the Sultanbeyli district on the Asian side of the Bosphorus waterway, which divides Istanbul, as police carried out raids.
Turkey opened its air bases to the US-led coalition against IS last month after years of reluctance and carried out its own bombing raids, stepping up its role after a suspected IS suicide bomber killed 32 people in the town of Suruc near the Syrian border.
Casting the operations as a war on terrorist groups “without distinction”, it simultaneously launched air strikes on PKK targets in Iraq and in southeastern Turkey.
Violence between security forces and suspected militants intensified in the mainly Kurdish southeast yesterday.
Four police officers were killed when their armored vehicle was hit by roadside explosives in the town of Silopi.
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