Nine killed in attacks across Turkey

Six members of the Turkish security services were killed in a series of attacks in Istanbul and Sirnak.

The escalating violence is occurring against the backdrop of growing tensions between Kurdish militants and the Turkish government.

In Istanbul two assailants opened fire at the heavily protected US consulate building in the city, sparking a gunfight with police.

One of the attackers, a woman, was later captured in a nearby building and taken to hospital.

The far-left Revolutionary People’s Liberation Army-Front have claimed responsibility for the attacks. The same group claimed a suicide attack at the US embassy in Ankara which killed a Turkish security guard.

In the same city a car carrying explosives struck a police station in the Sultanbeyli neighbourhood at 1am local time. The bomb killed the attacker and wounded three policemen and seven bystanders.

Six hours later, two gunmen opened fire on the same police station. In the ensuing gunfight two attackers and one police officer were killed.

Meanwhile four police officers were killed when a roadside bomb was detonated in the south eastern province of Sirnak.

A solider was also killed when gunmen fired on a military helicopter carrying conscripts who had finished their term of duty.

The sudden violence in Turkey’s largest city erupted a day after the US deployed six F-16 fighter jets and 300 military personnel to Incirlik air base in southern Turkey as part of a bid to increase military pressure on so-called Islamic State forces in neighboring Iraq and Syria.