A car bombing blamed on Kurdish militants rocked the Turkish city of Izmir on Thursday, killing at least two people and triggering a deadly shootout, as authorities chased the fugitive killer behind the New Year attack in Istanbul.
Turkey is on edge after the shooting rampage at the Reina nightclub unleashed shortly after revellers rang in 2017 which killed 39 people and was claimed by the ISIS.
Just four days after the nightclub carnage, a car bomb exploded outside a courthouse in the Aegean city of Izmir this afternoon, with authorities blaming the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
A policeman and a court worker, reportedly a bailiff, were killed, Deputy Prime Minister Veysel Kaynak told reporters. Police battled “terrorists” in a clash which saw two militants killed.
Another escaped and is now being pursued, he added. The usually peaceful port city, Turkey’s third largest metropolis, is the gateway to
the plush beach resorts of the Aegean and rarely sees violence on this scale.
It is west of the PKK’s main theatre in the southeast of the country.