AFP: 26 troops injured in attack on Istanbul police station

[english at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl]

   ANKARA, Feb 27 (AFP) - Left-wing extremists using guns and  
grenades attacked an Istanbul police station Friday, injuring 26 
troops, Turkish Interior Minister Murat Basesgioglu said. 
   The attack occurred in the Gaziosmanpasa district on the city's  
European side in the morning. Security forces launched a search for 
the attackers, who witnesses said fled on foot, but there were no 
arrests. 
   Basesgioglu told reporters here that the urban guerrilla group,  
the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party and Front (DHKP/C), 
claimed responsibility for the attack in phone calls to police. 
   The minister said none of the injured was in critical condition,  
but that 10 were treated in military hospitals. 
   The attackers opened fire first, drawing return fire from the  
gendarmerie. They then hurled two grenades which exploded and 
injured the 26 people, the witnesses said. 
   This was the worst such attack in Istanbul in more than a year.  
   The DHKP/C, previously known as Dev-Sol (Revolutionary Left),  
has killed scores of members of security forces, a few retired army 
generals and prosecutors and a former justice minister mainly in 
Istanbul since the late 1980s. 
   However, following effective police operations three years ago,  
the group lost many of its militants who were either killed or 
captured. 
   Before the interior minister's statement, security sources said  
they did not rule out the involvement of the Kurdistan Workers Party 
(PKK), a separatist rebel group fighting for an independent Kurdish 
homeland in southeast Turkey since 1984. 
   Its leader Abdullah Ocalan has repeatedly threatened to stage  
attacks outside its traditional battleground in the southeast. 
   The PKK and the DHKP/C signed a protocol in January last year to  
stage joint attacks against military and police targets throughout 
Turkey. 
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