Two Turkish policemen, seven IS militants killed in crossfire

PanARMENIAN.Net - Two Turkish policemen and sevenIslamic State militants were killed in a firefight after police raided a house in Turkey's southeast early on Monday, October 26, security sources said, according to Reuters.

The clashes in the Kayapinar district of the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir were continuing, the sources said. Four policemen were wounded in the fighting and three militants were captured alive, they said.

A video released by the Dogan news agency showed two armored police vehicles moving toward a row of houses as gunfire echoed in the background.

Turkish authorities have extended operations into suspected Islamic State cells after a double suicide bombing in Ankara that killed more than 100 people - the worst attack of its kind in Turkey's modern history - was blamed on the militant group.

Last week, President Tayyip Erdogan said Syrian intelligence and Kurdish militants, not just Islamic State, were behind the attack that targeted a rally of pro-Kurdish activists and civic groups.

Erdogan said Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants, the Syrian "mukhabarat" secret police and the Syrian Kurdish PYD militia had worked together with Islamic State in the bombing on Oct. 10.