Turkish security forces kill attacker at police headquarters

Middle East, News April 1, 2015 , by IRIA No Comments

Turkish security forces have clashed with two people who sought to attack the police headquarters in the city of Istanbul, killing one of the assailants, reports say.

The clashes, during which an accomplice managed to flee, took place a day after Istanbul prosecutor, Mehmet Selim Kiraz, lost his life in a hostage drama.

The dead female attacker is said to have had a bomb with her.

“An armed attack targeted our police department in Istanbul,” said Istanbul governor, Vasip Sahin, adding, “A female terrorist, with bomb and a gun, was killed in the clash. The other assailant fled and was injured and one policeman was lightly injured.”

Turkish media reported that police arrested the injured male attacker, however, the accounts have not been officially confirmed.

Istanbul is on high alert since Tuesday’s hostage-taking that was carried out by gunmen with the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C), who raided the sixth floor of the Caglayan courthouse and held prosecutor Kiraz captive.

Kiraz was investigating the killing of Berkin Elvan, who died in March 2014 after spending 269 days in a coma due to injuries inflicted by police two years ago.

Elvan was on his way to buy bread when he was caught up in a street protest in Istanbul’s Okmeydani neighborhood, in June 2013. His family blames the then prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is currently the country’s president, for Elvan’s death.

Kiraz succumbed to his injuries in hospital late on Tuesday after a six-hour hostage drama in which security forces killed the man’s two captors.

He was buried on Wednesday after a ceremony at the Eyup Sultan Mosque in Istanbul.

A man holds a portrait of killed prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz during a funeral ceremony outside the Eyup Sultan Mosque in Istanbul on April 1, 2015. © AFP

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who attended the slain prosecutor’s funeral at the mosque, said after the services, “No one should think that the attack will go without a response.”

Authorities have reportedly arrested 22 suspected members of the DHKP-C in the southern city of Antalya while 10 other suspected DHKP-C members have been also detained in the cities of Izmir and Eskisehir.

Turkey, the European Union and the United States regard the DHKP-C a terror group, which has carried out a spate of attacks in Turkey in the past.

MR/MKA/SS