ISTANBUL-Nine people were killed in separate attacks across Turkey on Monday, adding to worries here that Ankara’s decision to step up military pressure on Kurdish separatists and increase involvement in the U.S.-led campaign against Islamic State will trigger more violence on Turkish soil.
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No-one is reported to have been hurt.
The consulate is closed to the public until further notice.
Still, they compounded the jitters of Istanbul’s 14 million people on a day when the U.S. Consulate in the Sariyer district also was hit by gunfire. Four police were also killed in Sirnak province when their armored vehicle was attacked with a roadside bomb, the Dogan news agency reported.
Less than six hours later, two gunmen opened fire on the same police station, setting off a gunfight in which two attackers and one police officer were killed.
Details of the attack were not available, but the governorship said one woman was arrested and the other was being sought. The building, which is surrounded by fortified walls, was intact and its flag was flying.
The two assailants, one of whom was a woman, escaped after opening fire and are now being pursued, the CNN-Turk and NTV channels reported.
Turkey has been in a heightened state of alert since it 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 suspects at home.
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In July 2008, gunmen attacked the consulate in Istanbul. Davis said the U.S. likely will deploy combat search-and-rescue teams to Turkey as a routine contingency force for responding to the downing of an F-16 or other U.S. aircraft in hostile territory. The group claimed responsibility for a 2013 suicide attack on the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, which killed a Turkish security guard. The move followed a suicide bombing blamed on IS which killed 32 people and IS militants firing at Turkish soldiers from across the border in Syria, killing one soldier. The DHKP-C claimed responsibility for the attack.
