Turkey: Four policemen killed in Sirnak ‘terrorist attack’

At least one gendarme private was killed in an attack on a military helicopter in southeastern Sirnak province Monday, the Turkish military said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but the state-run Anadolu Agency, quoting unnamed police sources, said it was carried out by the PKK.

Meanwhile, in Istanbul a senior police officer in charge of the city’s bomb disposal department was killed in clashes that followed a suicide bombing.

The day of violence included a roadside blast in Silopi, close to the Iraq border, in which four police officers were killed and one badly wounded.

The growing unrest – marked by a surge of PKK attacks and government air strikes against the group – threatens to rekindle a conflict that has claimed more than 30,000 lives over the past three decades. Police said the assailants exploded a auto bomb near the station.

Footage broadcast by Turkish media showed police taking cover behind an armed vehicle amid a barrage of bullets.

Hours after the attack, police wearing flak jackets and holding machine guns blocked off streets leading to the consulate. No casualties were reported.

The US consulate attackers fled when police shot back, but one of the two assailants, possibly a woman, has now been arrested, reports say.

The PKK, designated a terrorist group by Ankara, the United States and European Union, launched its insurgency in 1984 to press for greater Kurdish rights.

Two female assailants opened fire at the U.S. Consulate in Istanbul on Monday and at least six Turkish security forces were killed elsewhere in a day of heavy violence in Turkey, where a government crackdown has targeted Islamic State militants, Kurdish rebels and far-left extremists.

Turkish warplanes have raided PKK targets in Iraq and in southeast Turkey in tandem with airstrikes against Islamic State militants in Syria since late July.