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Female Suicide Bomber Attacks Istanbul Police Station


Police officers look on after a female suicide bomber died when she blew herself up in an attack on a police station in central Istanbul, the city governor said, Jan. 6, 2015.
Police officers look on after a female suicide bomber died when she blew herself up in an attack on a police station in central Istanbul, the city governor said, Jan. 6, 2015.

Turkish authorities said one police officer was killed and another wounded after a female suicide bomber attacked a police station in Istanbul.

Reports said the woman spoke English as she entered the facility in the popular Sultanahmet district, claiming to have lost her wallet, and then detonated the explosives, killing herself.

Istanbul Governor Vasip Sahin said police are still trying to identify the woman in the attack.

The district is home to several sites favored by tourists, including the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia museum.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. It is the second attack on police near the city's landmarks in a week.

The Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C), an outlawed Turkish Marxist group, claimed a grenade attack on police Thursday outside Dolmabahce palace, which formerly housed the offices of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The explosives failed to detonate.

Previous DHKP-C attacks include a 2013 suicide bombing at the US embassy in Ankara in which a security guard was killed.

Some material for this report came from Reuters and AP.

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