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Female suspects killed in police standoff

March 3, 2016

Police in Istanbul have ended an hours-long standoff with two suspected assailants who attacked a police station. Both women were killed by police after fleeing to a nearby apartment block.

https://p.dw.com/p/1I60q
Türkei Anschlag auf eine Polizeiwache in Istanbul - Bayrampasa
Image: Reuters/O. Orsal

Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency said Thursday that police in Istanbul have shot and killed two women who had earlier attacked police with gunfire and a hand grenade.

Security camera footage shows the women firing at a police bus outside a riot police station. They also are seen hurling a hand grenade that failed to explode.

The woman had been cornered in the morning hours after one was injured by officers returning fire, the private Dogan news agency reported. The women fled to a nearby apartment block and were subsequently killed by officers.

Turkish police officers in Bayrampasa, Istanbul.
Special forces officers outside a police station in the Istanbul suburb of Bayrampasa following an attack on a bus carrying riot police officers.Image: Reuters/O. Orsal

Ultra-leftist group claims attack

The militant Marxist Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) has claimed responsibility for Thursday's attack.

It posted this message on an affiliated website Thursday afternoon: "Greetings to you, our two brave female liberation fighters who have taken the people's liberation fight on their shoulders."

Istanbul Governor Vahip Sahin said two police officers were wounded - one by broken glass during the attack on the bus and the other during the operation on the building.

Turkey has been on a high state of alert as violence continues to flare in the southeast between the military and Kurdish militants.

Infografik Karte Türkei Anschläge seit 2015 ENGLISCH

Some 29 people were killed in a car bombing that targeted a military convoy in Ankara last month, which was claimed by the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), a splinter group from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which has been waging an insurgency for political and cultural rights for Turkey's Kurdish minority since the 1980s.

jar/kms (AFP, Reuters, AP)