Outlawed Turkish Marxist group claims US consulate attack

An outlawed radical Turkish Marxist group on Monday claimed responsibility for a gun attack on the US consulate in Istanbul.

 

The Revolutionary People’s Liberation Front (DHKP-C) said on its website that one of its female militants carried out the attack.

 

It named her as Hatice Asik and said she was later arrested and taken to hospital after being shot by police.

 

“Our struggle will continue until imperialism and its collaborators leave our country and every parcel of our homeland is cleared of US bases,” it said, praising Asik as “our honor”.

 

A Turkish official in Ankara had earlier told AFP on condition of anonymity that the attack “on the consulate is linked with the DHKP-C”.

 

The attack comes as Turkey opens up its Incirlik air base in the southeast of the country to host US fighter jets to carry out bombing raids against Islamic State (IS) targets in Syria.

 

The group had claimed a 2013 suicide attack at the US embassy in Ankara that left one security agent dead.

 

Turkish authorities said one of two female militants — who they had named as Asik — was captured wounded, and the other was at large.

 

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