Rockets hit Istanbul police station and ruling party office
ISTANBUL (AP) — Suspected left-wing militants fired light anti-armor weapons Friday at an Istanbul police station and at the ruling party's local headquarters, officials said. No one was injured in the attacks.
The first rocket hit the garden wall of the city's main police station, the city's governor said. The second pierced the wall of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) headquarters in the city's Sutluce neighborhood but failed to explode, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.
Mehmet Mus, a senior AKP legislator, told parliament the attacks were the work of a banned far-left group, the Revolutionary People's Liberation Army-Front, or DHKP-C. The group has carried out a series of violent attacks in Turkey, including a suicide attack on the U.S. embassy in Ankara in 2013 that killed a security guard.
Friday's attacks came as parliament was debating constitutional reforms that aim to expand the powers of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's office.
Istanbul Gov. Vahip Sahin said a "large scale" police operation was launched to catch the assailant or assailants.
Turkey has suffered a series of deadly attacks carried out either by the Islamic State group or Kurdish militants.
