by Our Foreign Desk

TWO women opened fire on the heavily protected US consulate in Istanbul yesterday, one of whom was later shot and arrested in a nearby building before being taken to hospital.

Istanbul was also the scene of a car bombing at a police station, followed by a gun attack on officers who arrived to investigate the incident.

Following the consulate attack, the left-wing Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) identified the arrested woman as Hatice Asik, saying that she was a member of the group.

It described her as a “revolutionary” fighting US oppression and vowed to maintain its struggle until Turkey is cleared of all US bases.

The second woman is still being sought. There were no other casualties.

The group has previously claimed responsibility for a 2013 suicide attack on the US embassy in Ankara, which killed a Turkish security guard.

In the south-east of the country, four police were killed in Sirnak when a roadside bomb exploded, while Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) forces attacked a military helicopter in the same province, killing a conscript and wounding another.

Hours earlier, the overnight bomb attack on the police station left three police officers and seven civilians wounded and caused a fire that collapsed part of the three-storey building.

The suspected bomber was killed in the explosion, according to the Istanbul governor’s office.

Unknown assailants fired on police inspecting the scene of the explosion, sparking another gunfight with officers that killed a member of the inspection team and two assailants. There was no immediate responsibility claim for that attack.

Turkey carried out a major security sweep last month, detaining 1,300 people suspected of links to banned organisations.

Ankara lumped together the PKK, DHKP-C and Islamic State (Isis), but the overwhelming majority of those held were PKK members.

Turkey fell in line with Washington’s calls to take a more active role against Isis last month, conducting air strikes against its positions in Syria. It also agreed to let US warplanes use its bases to attack Isis.

The US military announced on Sunday that a detachment of six F-16 fighter jets and over 300 personnel had arrived at Turkey’s huge Incirlik air base in the heart of the country’s Kurdish region.