You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
The Grand Turk
Female suicide bomber hits police station in Istanbul
2015-01-07
[DAWN] A female jacket wallah blew herself up inside a cop shoppe in Istanbul's historic Sultanahmet district on Tuesday, killing one officer and wounding another, the city's governor and Turkish media said.

The woman spoke English as she entered the building but her nationality and identity were unknown, Governor Vasip Sahin told news hounds at the scene.

Turkish media said one of the officers died from his wounds.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but the bombing comes less than a week after far-left group DHKP-C said it was behind a grenade attack on police near the prime minister's office in Istanbul.

Police sealed off the street where Tuesday's attack happened, across the square from the Aya Sofya museum and Blue Mosque and near the Basilica Cistern, which are among the top tourist destinations in one of the world's most visited cities.

Public transport resumed after being briefly shut down and some tourists, braving heavy snow, were still walking around the historic Sultanahmet square.

The DHKP-C (Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front) had warned of further strikes after last Thursday's attack, in which a man carrying an automatic weapon was detained near the Ottoman-era Dolmabahce Palace.

The group was also behind a suicide kaboom at the US Embassy last year as well as attacks on Turkish cop shoppes. Turkey faces other security threats.

Some of the thousands of imported muscle who have joined the ranks of Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
gunnies in neighbouring Syria and Iraq have entered via Turkey, raising concern that they could return and strike on Turkish soil.

There have also been festivities in predominantly Kurdish southeastern Turkey in recent weeks between members of Kurdish Islamist party and youths linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has also carried out urban attacks in the past.
Posted by:Fred

00:00