Monday, August 10, 2015

Failed Attack on U.S. Consulate Istanbul (Not Constantinople)

Quite the Fortress, eh? (image from a travel blog)

















CBS News had a good report on today's incident of shots fired at the U.S. Consulate in Istanbul, along with some good video.

Briefly, two Turkish women fired several shots at the consulate office building, after which one escaped and the other - a 42-year old, which surprises me - was wounded by return fire from Turkish police and subsequently captured inside a nearby building where she hid. According to all reports I've seen so far, no one else was injured.

The organization to which the captured women belongs, Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C), has been on the Department of State Terrorist Group List since 1997. DHKP-C also carried out the 2013 suicide attack on the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, which killed a locally-engaged employee of the embassy.

Our consulate in Istanbul was relocated from its highly vulnerable previous location into a big ol' forbidding Fortress high on a hill several years ago, and that secure new facility helped to make today's shooting the fairly harmless thing it was. It certainly could have been worse; today's other attack by DHKP-C was a complex action in which a vehicle-borne bomb at a police station was followed up with small arms attacks on police as they responded to the bomb.

Since this failed attack puts me in a happy mood, here's a happy tune - Istanbul, not Constantinople (why they changed it I can’t say - people just liked it better that way) by The Four Lads.



Yeah, that was a 1950s song, long before They Might Be Giants covered it.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

TSB: Re: Hillary emails: pic.twitter.com/doCxhgkgx2

If only Baghdad Bob was still around and could do PR for Hillary. "Tell them there are no emails and we will keep fighting until these evil son's without mothers are defeated while I.... Oh Oh, they seized the car too." gwb

James said...

Of course:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=SQCArh_R9dY

Anonymous said...

TSB: The Navajo nation might be able to buy the whole state of New Mexico
when this is settled. gwb

https://twitter.com/DeanClancy/status/631830706222723072/photo/1

Of course it will probably take 10 years which is a long time to go without water or income. USG will probably work out a deal where they provide them with temporary water, food and shelter in exchange for indian blankets and rugs.

TSB said...

James: I never get tired of that movie. It really holds up.

Funny coincidence - I first heard that Istanbul song in a travel documentary dome by one of the Monty Python guys.