The Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front (DHKP-C) of Turkey, a Marxist-Leninist group that regularly launches attacks against police and embassies, has issued a statement today claiming credit for an attack on a police station in Istanbul, saying that the attackers were “brave female liberation fighters.”
The two women threw a hand grenade at the station, and both had guns, opening fire on the station. Two police were slightly wounded, and the women briefly fled into a nearby building, which was surrounded and in which they were killed.
This is the latest in a string of attacks by the DHKP-C, mostly in Istanbul, which reflects the group’s eagerness to continue launching such attacks, despite the group itself having relatively little influence in Turkey anymore.
Founded in 1978, the DHKP-C was originally called the Revolutionary Left, but changed its name after a split within the group. The group has been listed as a terrorist organization by the US State Department since 1997, and the European Union since 2001.