Two attackers have been killed, including a woman; One civilian has been killed and five other people have been injured, including three police officers, in an armed attack on the checkpoint of the Court Palace in the Caglayan neighborhood of Istanbul, according to the Ministry of the Interior.
The “terrorist attack”, as determined by the authorities, occurred at 11:46 local time when the two attackers fired at the police checkpoint at the entrance to the Palace of Justice, headquarters of several courts in that Istanbul neighborhood. The police officers guarding the entrance returned fire and in the shootout that broke out the two attackers were killed.
“It has been determined that the traitors, named E.Y. and P.B., who were neutralized, were members of the terrorist organization DHKP/C,” said Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya, referring to the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front. It is a radical left-wing armed group that has carried out attacks in Turkey for almost half a century, including against US interests in the country.
The minister noted that there were six people injured, three of them police officers, but minutes later it was reported that one of the civilians died on the way to the hospital. At the moment the situation of the rest of the injured is unknown.
This is the second attack in Istanbul in the last ten days. In the previous one, on January 28, a 52-year-old Turkish citizen died after an attack by the Islamic State against a Catholic church.
The DHKP/C has not committed recent attacks and has already attacked the same Istanbul Courthouse in the past: in March 2015, two attackers managed to enter the courts and murdered a prosecutor in his office.
