Two women shot at the U.S. consulate in Istanbul on Monday 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 Islamic State fighters in Syria and Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in northern Iraq. It has also rounded up hundreds of suspected militants at home.
The Turkish government on Monday blamed a radical Marxist group for a gun attack on the US consulate in Istanbul, an official told AFP.
“The attack on the consulate is linked with the DHKP-C,” the official told AFP on condition of anonymity, referring to the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Front (DHKP-C) which claimed a 2013 suicide attack at the US embassy in Ankara.
The same official said the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) was behind a suicide attack on a police station in Istanbul that resulted in clashes that left three terrorists and one top police official dead.
Two gunmen opened fire on the US consulate Monday morning. The attackers fled when police shot back, broadcaster CNN Turk said, adding that there were no casualties.
The attack followed a bombing at a police station in Istanbul earlier on Monday, which left at least one officers dead and four injured. Three terrorists were also killed in the attack.
The Daily Sabah reported that one of the suspects in the gunfire outside the US consulate is a woman.
Turkey launched what officials described as a “synchronized war on terror” last month, including air strikes against Islamic State fighters in Syria and Kurdish militants in northern Iraq, and the detention of hundreds of terror suspects within Turkey.
The far-leftist Revolutionary People’s Liberation Army-Front (DHKP-C) claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at the US embassyin Ankara in 2013 which killed a Turkish security guard.
