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Turkish Police Chief, Five Officers, Killed In Ambush
DIYARBAKIR, Jan 24 (News Agencies) - The police chief of Turkey's southeastern province of Diyarbakir and five other officers were shot and killed Wednesday in an ambush, Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said.
The assailants opened fire on a car carrying police chief Gaffar Okkan after he left his office in downtown Diyarbakir, the regional capital that was once at the heart of a 15-year Kurdish separatist insurgency.
"I have just spoken to the regional governor Gokhan Aydiner, who told me that six police officials were killed in the attack," Ecevit told reporters in Ankara.
There was no immediate information on who was responsible for the attack, said Ecevit, but a "meticulous" investigation was already underway.
"Even though we do not know who the murderers are, it is obvious that they want to overshadow the peaceful atmosphere in Turkey," the prime minister said.
"But the enemies of peace will not be able to achieve their aims despite such malicious acts," he added.
The ambush also wounded four police officers, the governor of Diyarbakir, Cemil Serhadli, told the Anatolia news agency.
Initial reports of the incident spoke of a bomb attack followed by gunfire, but witnesses said the attackers used firearms.
Police immediately launched a search of the city to track down those responsible.
The attack drew swift condemnation from Turkish leaders, who pledged that the perpetrators would not be allowed to go unpunished.
"Treacherous attacks of this kind will not be allowed to break the determination of either the state or the security forces in the fight against terrorism," Deputy Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz said in a written message.
Okkan, who served in Diyarbakir for the past three years, kept relatively few bodyguards due to a recent improvement in the security situation in the city.
Tensions have eased significantly there since September 1999, when the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a guerrilla movement pursuing self-rule in the southeast, declared an end to their armed campaign. They began withdrawing from Turkish territory to seek a peaceful resolution to the conflict.
Since then, the normally heavy security measures have been relaxed and life has mainly returned to normal.
The all-news television channel NTV speculated that a Muslim group, the Hizbullah, could be behind the ambush. Okkan had played a key role in a series of operations to curb the activities of its members in Diyarbakir.
Hizbullah, which is not believed to have any links with its Lebanese namesake, hit the headlines last year when police unearthed the bodies of 68 people in shallow graves across Turkey. They are thought to have been abducted and killed by the group.
The discoveries were made after police killed Huseyin Velioglu, the top leader of Hizbullah, and arrested two of his aides in a shootout in Istanbul in January last year.
Turkish authorities say Hizbullah aims to overthrow the country's secular order and replace it with an Islamic state.
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