Assailants fire shots at US Consulate in Istanbul

ISTANBUL (AP) – Two assailants opened fire at the heavily-protected U.S. Consulate building in Istanbul on Monday, touching off a gunfight with police before fleeing the scene, Turkish media reports said.

No-one is reported to have been hurt.

At least seven people – including five police officers – have reportedly been injured following the bomb blast this morning (August 10).

The flare-up of violence in Turkey’s largest city occurred a day after the U.S. deployed six F-16 fighter jets and 300 military personnel to Incirlik air base in southern Turkey as part of joint Turkey-U.S. bid to increase military pressure on Islamic State forces in neighboring Iraq and Syria.

The consulate is closed to the public until further notice.

US diplomatic missions have been targeted in Turkey in the past.

Two attackers were also killed after police returned fire, Turkey’s semi-official Anadolu news agency reported.

Police later caught one person in connection with the attack, but provided no details, the state-run Anadolu Agency said.

Two suspected militants have been killed in clashes with police in the district of Sultanbeyli where the attack on the police station took place, reports say.

In the southeast of the country a roadside bomb killed four police, and Kurdish rebels attacked a helicopter, killing a conscript. The DHKP-C and the PKK both have Marxist origins and have cooperated in the past, though there was no immediate indication of PKK involvement in this attack.

In July 2008, gunmen attacked the consulate in Istanbul.

The Cihan news agency said those involved in the attack on the building in Istanbul’s Sariyer district included one man and one woman. The move followed a suicide bombing blamed on IS which killed 32 people and IS militants firing at Turkish soldiers from across the border in Syria, killing one soldier. The group claimed responsibility for a 2013 suicide attack on the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, which killed a Turkish security guard.

The leftist DHKP-C has previously attacked US assets in the country. The building, which is surrounded by fortified walls, was intact and its flag was flying.