Turkey identifies female assailant in US Consulate raid
Turkish officials say they have identified one of the two women involved in a recent armed attack on the United States’ Consulate building in Turkey’s largest city and economic hub of Istanbul.
The Istanbul Governor’s Office said one of the assailants, who attacked the well-guarded US Consulate in Istanbul’s Sariyer district at around 7 a.m. local time (0400 GMT) on Monday, went by the name Hatice Asik, and was a member of the far-leftist Revolutionary People’s Liberation Army-Front (DHKP-C).
She was later detained after being wounded in a clash with police near the consulate building. The woman was taken to a nearby hospital, where she received treatment amid tight security measures.
Asik had spent three years in jail for DHKP-C membership, and had been released from prison on July 8.
Police sources, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the middle-aged woman was known by the alias Hulya, and had been designated as a potential bomber by the far-left group.
Eyewitness Engin Yuksek said the second female assailant managed to escape after the consulate attack.
Yuksek said police demanded that the women, who were carrying bags, surrender, but one of them replied, “I will never surrender to you. We’ve come here to take revenge for Suruc.”
On July 20, a deadly bomb attack attributed to Takfiri Daesh (ISIL) militants left 32 people dead in the southeastern Turkish town of Suruc, across the border from the northern Syrian town of Kobani.
A record of violence
On March 31, DHKP-C gunmen raided the sixth floor of the Caglayan courthouse in Istanbul and took prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz hostage.
Kiraz was investigating the killing of Berkin Elvan, who died on March 11, 2014 after spending 269 days in a coma due to injuries inflicted by police in early summer 2013.
The prosecutor succumbed to the injuries sustained during a six-hour hostage drama in which security forces killed the man’s two captors.
The DHKP-C also claimed responsibility for a bombing against the US Embassy in the Turkish capital city of Ankara in February 2013. The attack claimed the life of a Turkish security guard and wounded several passersby.
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