Militants kill six Turkey forces, attack US consulate

Ankara

Turkey was yesterday hit by a slew of deadly attacks, with six members of the security forces killed and the US consulate in Istanbul hit by a gun attack.

The authorities blamed the violence on Kurdish and Marxist radicals, as Ankara presses a two-pronged "anti-terror" offensive against Islamic State (IS) jihadists and Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants following a wave of attacks in the country.

Four Turkish police officers were killed in a roadside bomb attack, blamed on Kurdish militants, in the southeastern Silopi district of Sirnak province bordering Iraq and Syria, the official Anatolia news agency said.

A Turkish soldier was killed in a separate incident when Kurdish militants attacked a military helicopter with rocket launchers in Sirnak's Beytussebap district, the army said.

In Istanbul, a suspected suicide bomber detonated a vehicle packed with explosives at a police station in the Sultanbeyli district just after midnight, wounding ten people, three of them police, the governor's office said in a statement.

Clashes with police continued throughout the night. Beyazit Ceken, head of the police bomb disposal department, was wounded in the clashes and died of his injuries in hospital, the governor's office said.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan later joined mourners at his funeral in Istanbul broadcast live on television. Two militants were killed in the clashes as well as the suicide bomber, the governor's office added.

Meanwhile, two armed women yesterday launched a gun attack against the well-fortified US consulate on the outskirts of Istanbul.One of the two attackers was later arrested after being wounded in clashes with police.

The outlawed Marxist Revolutionary People's Liberation Party–Front (DHKP-C) said one of its militants - named as Hatice Asik - had carried out the attack. The DHKP-C has carried out a string of attacks in Turkey in the past, claiming a 2013 suicide attack on the US embassy in Ankara.

The authorities have targeted suspected DHKP-C, IS and PKK members in a succession of "anti-terror" raids in the last two weeks.A consulate spokesperson confirmed that there had been a "security incident" near the mission and the building remained closed to the public until further notice.