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Turkey bombing: Female suicide bomber attacks Istanbul police station, killing one and wounding another Turkey bombing: Female suicide bomber attacks Istanbul police station, killing one and wounding another
(about 4 hours later)
A female suicide bomber blew herself up at a police station in Istanbul on Tuesday, killing one policeman and wounding another, according to Turkish news agencies. A female suicide bomber blew herself up in a police station in Istanbul today, killing one officer and injuring another.
Istanbul governor Vasip Sahin said the woman entered the police station and reported a missing wallet before detonating a bomb. The attack occurred in the Sultan Ahmet district, a popular tourist destination. The woman, whose identify has not been released, reportedly walked into the building in the historic Sultanahmet district claiming she had lost her purse.
It is the second attack on police in a week in Istanbul. On Thursday, police subdued a man after he threw grenades and fired a weapon at officers near the prime minister's offices. The explosion was across a square from some of the Turkish city’s most popular tourist attractions, including the Aya Sofya museum and Blue Mosque, and near the Basilica Cistern.
The leftist Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front, or DHKP-C, said it carried out the Thursday attack. DHKP-C is considered as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the European Union. “We were shaken by a very loud blast. There were customers and everyone dropped to the floor,” Kaan Koc, who works opposite the station, told CNN Turk.
Suicide attacks have been rare in Turkey since the government opened peace talks in 2012 with the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, to end a thirty year insurgency. The DHKP-C has carried out sporadic attacks, including a suicide bombing on the U.S. embassy in 2013 that killed a security guard. The group was more active in the 1970s. “A police officer came out of the station and fired into the air saying 'disperse, there is a suicide bomber, go inside'. Then we heard gun fire but we weren't sure who was shooting.”
Sahin said that police are still trying to identify the woman who died in Tuesday's attack. Windows were shattered and shutters hung unhinged from the three-storey tourist police station as officers cordoned off the road in the aftermath.
“She spoke in English, entered (the police station) on the pretext that she had lost her wallet,” he said. The police station (yellow building on left) was cordoned off after the attack There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing, which came less than a week after far-left group DHKP-C (Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front) said it was behind a grenade attack on police near the Prime Minister's office in Istanbul.
AP Turkey also faces possible threat from Isis militants moving across the border from Syria and Iraq and from Kurdish rebels, despite a truce after an insurrection lasting 30 years.
The woman entered the police station saying in English that she had lost her purse and then detonated the explosives, Istanbul Governor Vasip Sahin said. Her nationality and identity were unknown.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said one of the officers had died and another was injured.
The DHKP-C had warned of further strikes after last Thursday's attack, when a man carrying an automatic weapon was detained near the Ottoman-era Dolmabahce Palace.
The group was also behind a suicide bombing at the American Embassy last year and numerous attacks on police stations. Most were in outlying Istanbul suburbs and linked with apparent vendettas against particular police officers.
A spokesperson for DHKP-C said Thursday's attack was over the killing of 15-year-old boy who died last March after nine months in a coma from a head wound sustained during an anti-government protest. It blamed President Tayyip Erdogan for the death.
Additional reporting by Reuters