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The two members of the banned Revolutionary People's
Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) took prosecutor Mehmet Selim
Kiraz hostage on Tuesday as an act of revenge over a teenager's
death during anti-government protests in 2013.
Kiraz, who was also killed in the rescue attempt, was leading an
investigation into the death last March of 15-year-old Berkin
Elvan, who died after nine months in a coma from a head wound
sustained from a police gas canister.
Police used tear gas to break up protests in Okmeydani, Elvan's
neighborhood in central Istanbul, the Radikal newspaper said on
its website.
In the working-class Istanbul district of Gazi, scene of
frequent clashes and where the group has sympathizers, police
used tear gas and water cannon to stop protesters from marching
on a police station, it said.
Elvan died during protests that began as an effort to save a
park from development before swelling into the biggest
anti-government movement in a generation. President Tayyip
Erdogan has described Elvan as a "terrorists' pawn."
The DHKP-C is a Marxist group formed in the late 1970s that has
been behind a series of assassinations and suicide bombings,
including fatal attacks on the U.S. Embassy. The Turkish police
have been a frequent target too.
A website close to the group published a picture of the
prosecutor with a gun to his head on Tuesday. Authorities tried
to negotiate for Kiraz's release, but he was shot in the head
and body and died of his wounds.
(Reporting by Ayla Jean Yackley; Editing by Nick Tattersall and
editing by John Stonestreet)
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