The US Consulate in Istanbul has been fired on by two female assailants, hours after a suspected vehicle bomb attack at a police station.
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Two armed women launch a gun attack against the US consulate in Istanbul.
The Marxist-oriented Revolutionary People’s Liberation Army-Front announced that it was behind Monday’s attack, calling the United States an “archenemy” of the Middle East in a statement.
Two attackers were killed in the gunfight, and a police officer who was wounded later died at the hospital, the news agency said.
Meanwhile, four policemen were killed and one injured in southeastern Sirnak province by a remote-detonated roadside bomb on Monday. In a separate attack in the same province, the military said, a soldier was killed when extremists opened fire on a military helicopter.
The attacks come at a time of a sharp spike in violence between Turkey’s security forces and rebels of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK. Police returned fire and one of the attackers was detained after being injured.
The attacks are the latest in a spiral of violence that began with a suicide bombing linked to Islamic State (IS) near Turkey’s border with Syria on July 20th in which 33 people died.
“The group is known for its anti-American and anti-US stance”, Lale Sariibrahimoglu, a military analyst, told Al Jazeera from Ankara.
Top PKK commander Cemil Bayik has accused Turkey of protecting IS militants by targeting Kurdish fighters.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for either of the attacks, but U.S. diplomatic missions and police stations have been targeted by far-left groups in Turkey in the past.
“The PKK tried and failed to start an uprising in residential areas in the 1990s due to a lack of militants”, said Nihat Ali Ozcan, who studies the group at the Economic Policy Research Foundation in Ankara.
In Istanbul, a police officer was killed in clashes after a auto bombing.
Turkish officials have confirmed one of two women opened fire at the heavily protected U.S. Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey on Monday is in police custody.
Details of the attack were not available, but the governorship said one woman was arrested and the other was being sought.
In Washington, State Department Spokesman John Kirby said U.S. officials were working with Turkish authorities to investigate the incident. No casualties were reported at the consulate, it said.
Tensions are excessive in Turkey after it launched an offensive towards Islamic State (IS) jihadists and Kurdish militants following a collection of assaults inside Turkey. The United States government as designated the group as a terrorist organization.
The strikes appeared to be in retaliation for a succession of attacks in Turkey on Monday that killed six members of the security forces, which were blamed on the PKK.
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Analysts say that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is using the conflict with the PKK for political gains.
