In attack on US consulate in Istanbul, three Turkish police and 3 assailants killed:

A group of unidentified gunmen opened fire on Turkish security guards outside the United States Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, on Wednesday, the Turkish authorities said, and at least three police officers and three assailants were killed.

The late-morning attack was the first on a diplomatic mission in the city since 2003 when 62 people were killed in assaults on the British consulate, a bank and two synagogues. While the motives behind this attack were not immediately clear, Turkish officials described the gunmen as terrorists. [...]

The consulate is a heavily fortified building with heavy security measures. Witnesses and news reports said that about 15 minutes before the attack, the three gunmen were seen sitting in a gray car with another man — apparently the driver — that was parked in a carwash shop near the consulate. At about 10:30 a.m., the three, who looked to be between 25 and 30 years old, hopped out of the vehicle, walked up to a police post at the main entrance of the consulate, and opened fire, taking the officers by surprise.

“One of them approached a policeman while hiding his gun and shot him in the head,” a witness, Yazuz Erket Yuksel, said in remarks reported by Reuters.

In the ensuing clash, two of the officers fired back, killing all three attackers, according to news reports. The authorities said the three men used handguns and a “pump action shotgun,” and that the fourth man escaped by car. [...]

Istanbul’s chief prosecutor, Aykut Cengiz Engin, told reporters at a televised news conference that the authorities ‘’consider the incident a terrorist act.”

Turkey’s president, Abdullah Gul, condemned the attack in a statement to reporters. “I strongly denounce such terror attacks,” he said. ...

The consulate was for many years located in the center of the city in a bustling area near Taksim Square. But it was relocated five years ago to the Istinye area near the Bosphorous Straits to be better protected from terrorist attacks. ...

More from the Post:

Al-Qaeda was the first suspect to occur to many Turks, Cengiz Candar, a political columnist with Turkey's Sabah daily, said by telephone from Istanbul. Al-Qaeda carried out the last attack on a diplomatic outpost in Istanbul, detonating a bomb in front of the British Consulate in 2003.

Turks also have been shaken this month by the arrests of 21 people, including two retired generals, in an alleged plot to overthrow the country's Islamic-rooted government. Authorities have released few details on the plot, but newspapers close to the government have reported that the plan focused on carrying out a series of violent attacks in Turkey so as to justify an army takeover.

A contact reading Turkish daily Milliyet writes, "The dead attackers have been identified, and it seems pretty certain that they are Islamic extremists. Two have been in and out of Afghanistan. One had a Syrian passport. One had ties to an extremist Turkish group, the IBDA/C. Others who may have been involved have not been caught. Next of kin are being interrogated."

Posted by Laura at July 9, 2008 09:54 AM