Turkish authorities neutralized a woman who was reportedly armed with guns and hand grenades as she and a male accomplice attempted to attack the Istanbul Police Headquarters on Wednesday, Ankara officials have revealed.
“The Istanbul police headquarters on Vatan street was targeted by rifle fire and a female terrorists was killed in the clash,” the Istanbul governor’s office said in a statement released to the media. The statement said that the woman was armed with a rife, a pistol and two hand grenades.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmed Davutoglu said that the attacks may be a result of “provocations” ahead of June’s election, Reuters reports.
“We are aware that we face an axis of evil and there is an attempt to instigate an atmosphere of chaos ahead of the election,” he told the press.
The incident comes just one day after Turkey experienced a hostage crisis that ended in tragedy, when Marxist terrorists abducted a high-profile prosecutor who would later be killed in a gun battle between the revolutionaries and police.
DHKP-C, a Marxist, U.S.-designated terror group, claimed responsibility for the hostage-taking. A post on its website said that they kidnapped the prosecutor to avenge the death of a fourteen-year-old boy, who fell into a coma and later passed away after being hit in the head by a police teargas grenade during nationwide protests in 2013.
The leftist group carried out a suicide attack on the U.S. Embassy in Turkey in 2013, killing a security guard.
There are reports that Turkish authorities disallowed the media from covering the hostage situation as it unfolded. Hurriyet news reported that the newest gag order totaled the 150th time in the past four years that media coverage has been silenced by the government. Turkish television stations reportedly immediately cut their coverage of the incident once the ruling came down from above.