Turkey Police Increases Security

Turkish police have increased security following attacks by left-wing radicals that have left three police dead and more than two dozen injured. Security officials said Monday they fear that left-wing radicals will start targeting politicians and judges in addition to police to avenge the deaths of 30 of their comrades. The 30 died last month when troops stormed prisons to end a hunger strike by the militants. Police checked cars parked in front of police stations or military barracks and bomb experts were detonating packages left in public places. Citizens were asked to immediately report stolen cars or suspicious parcels. On Monday, police evacuated an area in the Mediterranean coastal city of Antalya, a hotspot with European tourists, after a suspicious parcel was found. The bomb squad exploded the parcel, but found only a pair of glasses in the debris. Police have been ordered not to patrol isolated streets in poor neighborhoods with histories of anti-police violence, and security around top officials has been increased. The alert was declared last week after a militant with a bomb strapped to his body blew himself up inside an Istanbul police station, killing one policeman and injuring seven people, an intelligence officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The Marxist Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front claimed responsibility for that attack, saying it carried out the attack to avenge the December prison killings, AP reports.