A leftist militant group has claimed responsibility for a gun and grenade attack on a police bus in Turkey's Istanbul, which left two female militants dead.
The Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front, known as the DHKP-C, claimed responsibility for Thursday's attack in Istanbul’s Bayrampasa district in a statement to the state-run Anadolu news agency.
The female militants had been identified as Berna Yılmaz and Çiğdem Yahşi.
Designated as terrorist by Turkey, the DHKP-C has repeatedly staged attacks on police stations, mainly in Istanbul suburbs.
The attacks came in the midst of Turkey’s ongoing security operation in the southeast where the army has been engaged in a massive crackdown against the suspected members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
The violence in the Kurdish-dominated region has also taken its toll on other areas in Turkey with frequent gun attacks and blasts reported in cities like Ankara and Istanbul, targeting civilians and security forces.
Turkish army says it has managed to kill around 670 suspected PKK members since the crackdown began last July. Officials from the pro-Kurdish Democratic Peoples' Party (HDP) say, however, that many of those killed were civilians.
