Police and gunmen killed at US consulate in Istanbul

Istanbul police chiefs and other security officials inspect the bodies of police officers in front of the US consulate in Istanbul yesterday.
Photograph: Reuters

TURKEY: THREE POLICEMEN and three gunmen were killed yesterday during a five-minute shoot-out outside the United States consulate in Istanbul, in an attack Turkish authorities described as "a terrorist act".

The shooting began at 10.30am local time, when three men jumped out of a car that had driven up to the entrance of the high-walled compound overlooking the Bosphorus and began firing with pump-action shotguns and pistols.

One reportedly shouted "America, this is because of you", before opening fire.

One traffic policeman was shot in the head and died on the spot, according to Istanbul governor Muammer Guler. The two other policemen, one a 20-year-old only two weeks into his first job, died later in hospital.

Television images showed four bodies lying in front of the consulate gates, with paramedics carrying out heart massage on one man. Another man, apparently one of the attackers, lay bare-chested, his shirt ripped open.

"There was chaos, with bullets going in all directions," one eyewitness told private CNN-Turk television. "I heard about 30 gunshots. People queueing outside the consulate were taken inside, but I heard one woman shouting, 'My children are still out there!'" Other witnesses described seeing the assailants' car parked in a car wash just down the road from the consulate before the attack.

Mutlu Gunes (13) told reporters he saw the men preparing guns and putting them in the car before driving a short distance up the hill to the consulate complex.

"Three of them got out of the car," he said. "One shot a policeman in the chest and I saw one terrorist killing himself after being shot by police. Then I hid under a car."

Yesterday's attack was the first on a diplomatic mission since 62 people died during co-ordinated car-bomb attacks on the British consulate, a bank and two synagogues in November 2003.

The 2003 bombings proved to be the work of a Turkish group linked to al-Qaeda. The group's presence in Turkey is thought to have been seriously dented by the arrest last year of a Syrian believed to control Turkish operations.

Seventeen other al-Qaeda suspects were arrested last January after a 12-hour battle in Gaziantep, a Turkish city close to the Syrian border that is known to be a crossing point for jihadi fighters on their way to Iraq.

Although nobody has claimed responsibility for yesterday's attacks, speculation about al-Qaeda involvement was mounting after police said that at least one of the three assailants killed had been in Afghanistan. Like most of the 2003 car bombers, all three were from the conservative, mainly Kurdish eastern provinces of Turkey.

Police were still looking for a fourth man whom eyewitnesses saw driving away after the shootings.

"I strongly denounce such terror attacks," Turkish president Abdullah Gul told reporters. "Turkey will struggle to the end with those who organise these [attacks] and the mentality behind them."

Formerly located barely 200 metres from the British consulate in central Istanbul, the US consulate moved to its new, heavily defended location in 2004 as part of a security step-up in the wake of the September 11th, 2001, attacks in New York.

Anti-American feeling has risen dramatically in Turkey, a staunchly secular Nato member, since US-led coalition forces invaded Iraq in 2003.

© 2008 The Irish Times

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times