Six dead in US consulate attack

ISTANBUL – Men armed with pistols and shotguns attacked a police guard post outside the United States consulate in Istanbul yesterday, sparking a gunbattle that left three attackers and three officers dead.

Turkish and US officials called the shooting a terrorist attack. The US ambassador to Turkey and Turkey’s foreign ministry said security around all American diplomatic missions in Turkey had been increased.Yavuz Erkut Yuksel, a bystander, told CNN-Turk television the attackers emerged from a vehicle and surprised the guard.”One of them approached a policeman while hiding his gun and shot him in the head,” Yuksel said.Footage from a security camera at the site showed four armed and bearded men emerging from a car and killing a traffic policeman, then running toward a guard post some 50 metres away as other policemen fired back, the Dogan news agency reported.The shootout caused panic and scattered people who were waiting in a line for visas.US security personnel went inside the compound because they are not authorised to engage in armed action on Turkish soil, Dogan said.A fourth policeman and the driver of a towing vehicle were wounded in the attack, Istanbul Governor Muammer Guler said.US Ambassador Ross Wilson said the consul general in Istanbul, Sharon Wiener, told him that that consulate staff were “safe and accounted for.”At least two of the attackers were Turkish nationals, Guler said.Police said they were pursuing a fourth attacker who escaped in a car after the attack outside the high-walled consulate compound in the residential Istinye district around 11h00.”There is no claim of responsibility so far,” Interior Minister Besir Atalay said at the scene.Atalay said the police would not reveal the identities of the attackers.Nampa-APThe US ambassador to Turkey and Turkey’s foreign ministry said security around all American diplomatic missions in Turkey had been increased.Yavuz Erkut Yuksel, a bystander, told CNN-Turk television the attackers emerged from a vehicle and surprised the guard.”One of them approached a policeman while hiding his gun and shot him in the head,” Yuksel said.Footage from a security camera at the site showed four armed and bearded men emerging from a car and killing a traffic policeman, then running toward a guard post some 50 metres away as other policemen fired back, the Dogan news agency reported.The shootout caused panic and scattered people who were waiting in a line for visas.US security personnel went inside the compound because they are not authorised to engage in armed action on Turkish soil, Dogan said.A fourth policeman and the driver of a towing vehicle were wounded in the attack, Istanbul Governor Muammer Guler said.US Ambassador Ross Wilson said the consul general in Istanbul, Sharon Wiener, told him that that consulate staff were “safe and accounted for.”At least two of the attackers were Turkish nationals, Guler said.Police said they were pursuing a fourth attacker who escaped in a car after the attack outside the high-walled consulate compound in the residential Istinye district around 11h00.”There is no claim of responsibility so far,” Interior Minister Besir Atalay said at the scene.Atalay said the police would not reveal the identities of the attackers.Nampa-AP