July 09, 2008
Homegrown Terrorists Killed Outside U.S. Consulate in Istanbul
Three gunmen ambushed Turkish police outside the U.S. consulate in Instanbul, Turkey today, in an attack that left all three attackers and three Turkish police officers dead, but not before the police killed their assailants.
The attack was carried out with handguns and a pump shotgun, indicating this was not the work of an organized terrorist organization such as al Qaeda or Hezbollah. These groups have a well-documented history of using large vehicle-borne explosives to carry out attacks against fortified positions such as embassies and consulates. Using such short-range weaponry in such a poorly executed and apparently ad hoc assault, the attack had virtually no chance of success, and no one was apparently injured inside the consulate.
A fourth man seen with the three attackers never left a gray car seen at a nearby carwash moments before the ambush, and escaped after his compatriots were killed.
While true this could just be an ad-hoc attack, what is the possibility that they were using this attack to gauge the response times of various emergency response and security teams? They could have observers prepositioned and this would give them an idea of how US security detachments would react if they didn't have that information already.
Not trying to make a mountain of a molehill - recon by fire like this only serves to heighten security and may be detrimental to follow up ops.
Posted by: Dan Irving at July 9, 2008 08:29 AMWe really have to applaud the Turkish police on this one, they are after all the ones responsible for protecting the Embassy.
Not only did the Turkish police officers due their duty in protecting the Embassy three of them gave their lives during the process.
No personnel inside the Embassy were hurt.
Posted by: John Davis at July 9, 2008 12:28 PM
