An extreme left-wing group carried out the armed attack on a police bus in Istanbul late Monday in which two officers were killed and a dozen others injured, security officials told Anatolia news agency.
They said the Turkish Communist Party-Marxist-Leninist carried out the attack.
The bus was carrying riot police who had just ended a patrol and was leaving the Gaziosmanpasa district, on Istanbul's European side, when it came under attack.
Some 2,000 police marched in Istanbul to protest the killings, waving Turkish flags and calling on Interior Minister Saadettin Tantan to provide better protection for the security forces, Anatolia reported Tuesday.
Istanbul police chief Kazim Abanos said late Monday that the assailants had fired on the bus with Kalashnikov automatic rifles.
He also hinted that the attack was linked to an ongoing hunger strike in Turkish jails where inmates are protesting planned reforms designed to tighten security in the country's unruly prisons.
He told NTV channel "there are currently efforts organized from inside prisons to create chaos."
In October, Istanbul police issued a warning that an extreme-left group was preparing to carry out attacks against public figures and security forces to try to stop the reform.
More than 200 prisoners, mainly from the extreme-left, have been on hunger strike for more than 50 days. They oppose government plans to create new jails with cells holding a maximum of three people, replacing existing prison dormitories which hold up to 60 inmates.
The prisoners maintain this will limit their right to association and allow warders to keep them under tighter control.
Ankara suspended on Saturday the inauguration of the new jails in an attempt to reach a consensus on the issue, but inmates have refused to end their protests until the reform is scrapped -- ANKARA (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
