Police kill 2 women after station attack

ISTANBUL: Turkish police killed two female leftist militants who hurled grenades and opened fire at an Istanbul police station yesterday, officials said.

The two women — members of the outlawed ultra-leftist Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) — had taken refuge in an apartment after their attack.

Police then launched an assault on the apartment, and the two were “neutralised”, Istanbul governor Vasip Sahin was quoted as saying by Anatolia news agency. Two police officers were lightly wounded.

The women were named as Cigdem Yaksi and Berna Yilmaz, both members of the DHKP-C, Anatolia said.

According to Dogan news agency, the two women had thrown several grenades then opened fire at the riot police headquarters.

Officers returned fire, injuring one of the attackers before they fled to the nearby building. Security footage broadcast on television showed them brandishing weapons they pulled out of their handbags.

Turkey has been in a state of alert for months since a series of deadly attacks on its soil.

DHKP-C has claimed a string of attacks in Turkey in recent months, and a gun attack on the US embassy in Istanbul last year.

The group seeks a Marxist revolution among the working classes but also espouses a fiercely anti-Western and antiNato agenda.