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07-02-2024
ISTANBUL: The Turkish police have killed two people who allegedly attacked a court in Istanbul in what authorities labelled a “terrorist act”.
The incident on Tuesday morning also saw six people injured, including three police officers, officials said, blaming it on the leftist armed group Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front (DHKP-C).
Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on X that the shooters were killed in a gun battle after they opened fire on a checkpoint near the Caglayan court in Istanbul.
The suspects, a man and a woman identified only as EY and PB, were alleged members of the DHKP-C, enlisted as a “terrorist group” in Turkey, he said.
The DHKP-C has waged a campaign against the Turkish state since the 1980s.
Footage from the scene in the aftermath of the incident showed a heavy police presence at the entrance to the court, with entry and exit points closed.
Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said prosecutors had launched an investigation into the attack.
The attack is the latest to hit Turkey as the war in Gaza spreads tensions across the Middle East. It follows closely in the wake of several other armed attacks in Turkey.
Masked gunmen, purportedly members of ISIL (ISIS), stormed a church in Istanbul last month during Sunday mass and killed one person. Authorities have since arrested many people over suspecting their involvement in the attack or links to the group.
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) armed group, which has also waged a bloody campaign against the Turkish government for decades, launched a suicide attack on the Ministry of Interior’s building in capital Ankara in October.
Authorities reacted by bombing Kurdish positions in northern Iraq and have since arrested hundreds with purported links to Kurdish groups.
In the last week of October last year, Turkey said its warplanes have carried out raids on Kurdish targets in northern Iraq following a suicide attack on a government building in capital Ankara.
A Turkish interior ministry statement on Sunday said about 20 targets of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) group were “destroyed” in the aerial operation, including caves, shelters and depots.
The military ramped up air strikes in Iraq’s PKK bases in Gara, Hakurk, Metina and Qandil, the statement said.
Iraqi President Abdul-Latif Rashid on Monday said in an interview with Saudi Arabian state-owned broadcaster Al-Hadath that his country does not accept the repeated Turkish strikes or the presence of Turkish bases in the Kurdistan region and hopes to come to an agreement with Turkey to solve this problem. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
