Deadly bomb blast, shootout near Turkish courthouse
ISTANBUL -- An explosion believed to have been caused by a car bomb in front of a courthouse in the western Turkish city of Izmir on Thursday wounded some 10 people, a local official said. Two of the suspected attackers were killed in an ensuing shootout with police.
Turkey’s state-run news agency Anadolu reported that one Turkish police officer and one court employee were killed in the explosion.
District Mayor Hasan Karadag told NTV television that one of the wounded was in serious condition. A firefight between three of the suspected attackers and police erupted after the explosion, and two of the assailants were killed, he said.
Anadolu said police are looking for a third suspect, described as wearing a black coat and a white beret.
Several ambulances and police were dispatched to the scene. The explosion occurred near an entrance used by judges and prosecutors, several media reports said.
Unconfirmed photos posted on social media, purportedly from the scene, showed a dead man’s body laying on the ground next to a rifle.
The incident follows a string of attacks, carried out by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) or by Kurdish militants, that have left Turkey on edge.
Thirty-nine people were killed in a nightclub attack in Istanbul during New Year’s celebrations. The ISIS group claimed that attack, and a senior Turkish official said earlier Thursday that law enforcement was “closing in” on the suspect.
The regional governor told Turkish media that officials suspected Kurdish militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) group were behind the Izmir attack.
“Initial evidence suggests the PKK was behind the attack,” Gov. Erol Ayyildiz said, according to French news agency AFP.
Police conducted more raids in their hunt for the Istanbul gunman Thursday, meanwhile, detaining several people at a housing complex in the city’s outskirts, the state-run news agency reported.
Anadolu Agency said gendarmerie police and special operations teams conducted raids in the Silivri district, detaining an undisclosed number of people from China’s Muslim Uighur community. The report said that those rounded up were suspected of “aiding and abetting” the gunman.
Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak told Turkish news channel A Haber on Thursday that investigators believe the suspect is likely a Uighur. Officials have said they know the man’s identity, but they have not made the name public.