Six members of the Turkish security forces were killed and the US consulate in Istanbul hit by a gun attack in a day of violence on Sunday blamed on Kurdish and Marxist radicals as the Government pressed on its air campaign against militants.
Turkey’s largest city Istanbul was shaken by twin attacks on the US consulate and a police station that killed one senior officer, while five police were killed in the southeastern Sirnak province in an escalating cycle of violence.
The Government is waging a two-pronged “anti-terror” offensive against Islamic State (ISIS) jehadis and Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants following a wave of attacks in the country. But so far air strikes have overwhelmingly focused on the Kurdish militants, who have struck back by attacking the Turkish security forces and leaving a 2013 ceasefire in tatters.
Four Turkish police officers were killed in a roadside bomb attack in the southeastern Silopi district of Sirnak province bordering Iraq and Syria blamed on Kurdish militants, Turkish media said.
Meanwhile, in a separate incident, one Turkish soldier was killed when Kurdish militants attacked a military helicopter with rocket launchers as it was transporting personnel in Sirnak’s Beytussebap district, the Dogan news agency said.
Marxist group DHKP-C claims attack
Ankara: An outlawed radical Turkish Marxist group on Monday claimed responsibility for a gun attack on the US consulate in Istanbul. The Revolutionary People's liberation Front (DHKP-C) said on its website that one of its female militants carried out the attack. It named her as Hatice Asik and said she was later arrested and taken to hospital after being shot by police. "Our struggle will continue until imperialism and its collaborators leave our country and every parcel of our homeland is cleared of US bases," it said, praising Asik as "our honour".