Turkish officials on Friday, Oct 10, angrily condemned a wave of unrest in which two police officers were gunned down and Kurds angry over a siege by Islamist militants on their ethnic kin in Syria clashed with security forces and radical Islamists, Reuters reported.
Intense fighting raged in the Syrian Kurdish border town of Kobani, where a three-week-old assault by Islamic State fighters has infuriated many of neighboring Turkey's 15 million Kurds, who want Ankara to intervene militarily.
Automatic gunfire echoed across the border as Islamic State continued their offensive on Kobani, and a Kurdish military official called for a further ramping up of U.S.-led coalition airstrikes, which have slowed the advance of militants into the town.
In Turkey, the fate of Kobani sparked violence this week in more than a third of the country's provinces, leaving 31 people dead, Interior Minister Efkan Ala told a news conference.
"What excuse could possibly justify violence, the death of people and attacks on soldiers and police. Then what's the use of politics," Ala said in the capital Ankara on Friday, according to Reuters.
Most of the fatalities were in clashes between rival groups and more than a thousand people had been detained, he added.
The bloodshed risks stirring up deep-running ethnic divisions within Turkey and wrecking a delicately poised peace process aimed at disarming fighters from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), who have been fighting a 30-year-old insurgency against the Turkish authorities demanding more autonomy.
A police chief and a policeman were seriously injured and two officers killed on Thursday after unidentified gunmen opened fire with automatic weapons as they inspected shops damaged in earlier unrest in the eastern province of Bingol, according to Dogan News Agency.
Four of the alleged attackers were later killed and two more were caught following a shootout with security forces, the agency reported.
No details of the attackers were available early on Friday and no one claimed responsibility for the reported assassination attempt, the first of its kind since a senior police officer was gunned down in Diyabakir in 2001.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told reporters on Friday that "terrorists" had carried out the attack, without giving further details.
The southeastern border province of Gaziantep saw some of the worst violence overnight, when four people were killed and 20 were wounded as armed clashes broke out between protesters demonstrating in solidarity with Kobani and groups opposing them.
Police officers were also targeted in attacks in the southeastern province of Siirt, the southern province of Mersin and the eastern Tunceli province, local media reported, whilst government buildings including police headquarters came under attack.
Earlier in the week local media reported that 25 people had been killed after pro-Kobani demontrations erupted into bloodshed during the single deadliest day of civil disorder Turkey has seen for years.
On Friday intense fighting between Islamic State fighters and outgunned Kurdish forces in the streets of Kobani could be heard from across the border.
Jets roared overhead and the western edge of town was hit by an airstrike apparently carried out by U.S.-led coalition warplanes which have intensified their campaign against IS targets around Kobani in recent days.
The militants controlled swathes of the eastern parts of town and smaller areas in the south, according to the UK based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, who said IS was trying to seize the road leading into Turkey, thus cutting off the Kurdish defenders entirely.
