Shots fired outside of U.S. consulate in Istanbul

On Monday, two attackers shot at the U.S. consulate building in Istanbul, fleeing the scene after police officers returned fire, CNN Turk reports.

Turkey's Cihan news agency said one man and one woman were behind the shooting, and there were no casualties. Earlier Monday, five police officers and two civilians were injured when a bomb went off at a police station in Istanbul's Sultanbeyli neighborhood, Al Jazeera said. There is no word if the two attacks are linked.

Since Turkey began air strikes against ISIS in Syria and Kurdish militants in northern Iraq and detained hundreds of people considered rebels, the country has been in a heightened state of alert, Reuters reports. This also isn't the first time a U.S. diplomatic mission has been targeted: In 2013, the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Army-Front (DHKP-C) claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at the U.S. embassy in Ankara, which killed a security guard.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up