Police, gunmen killed at US Istanbul mission

Three Turkish policemen and three gunmen were killed in an attack on the US consulate in Istanbul yesterday, the city's governor said.

Witnesses said four attackers drove a car up to the high-walled compound situated to the north of Istanbul city centre and overlooking the Bosphorus waterway. Three jumped out as the car halted and began firing at police at a guard post.

The attack coincides with political tensions in Turkey. The ruling party is in a legal fight to avert closure over charges of anti-secular activities and police are probing a shadowy far-right group suspected of plotting a military coup.

Governor Muammer Guler said one of the police officers died at the scene in a gun battle lasting several minutes, at a time of day when many Turks go there to apply for visas. Two had died of their wounds at a nearby hospital.

Two other people were also slightly injured.

Later yesterday evening CNN Turk TV quoted police sources as saying Al Qaeda was behind the attack on the US consulate in Istanbul.

CNN Turk also said two people were later detained in Istanbul, one of them a brother of one of the dead assailants.

Turkey and the US condemned the 11:00 am (0800 GMT) attack for which no one has yet claimed responsibility.

"We very much appreciate what was clearly a very rapid and proper response from the government to try to deal with the security situation in front of our consulate," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters on her plane to Sofia.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said he as "greatly saddened by the martyrdom of our three police officers in a terrorist attack".

TV images showed four bodies lying on the ground around the police post at the consulate's gates, with paramedics carrying out heart massage on one man. The shirt of another was ripped open. Blood was flowing from the head of a third.

"They (the assailants) were four people. Three of them got out of the car and fired at the police. I saw them dead afterwards lying on the ground and many more dead among the police," Enis Yilmaz, who was going to the consulate to get a visa, said. He said the fourth man drove off.

"We saw four people in a car, they were wearing coats and that seemed pretty weird in this weather. Then we saw they had guns," Muhammet Nur, 15, said.

"At first we thought they might be civil police but at that moment they drew their guns and a gun battle began," said Mr Nur, who saw the gun battle from a nearby cafe.

"I could not get the (car) plate number but my friend did."

Istanbul governor Guler said that the three dead gunmen were Turkish citizens, believed to be aged 25-30. Police were searching for a man suspected of driving the car.

Mutlu Gunes, a 13-year-old eyewitness, told reporters he was on his way to a mosque when he spotted several men preparing guns and placing them inside a Ford Focus car, before driving a short distance to the modern consulate complex.