An extreme Islamist group, the Turkish Hizbullah, is thought to be behind the murder of two policemen in Istanbul at the weekend, Interior Minister Rustu Kazim Yucelen said on Wednesday.
"Police have recorded significant progress in the investigation. There are signs in the clues that the attack was carried out by Hizbullah," Yucelen told reporters here, according to Anatolia news agency.
Two plainclothes policemen were killed and another was seriously injured on Sunday when gunmen opened fire on their car in the Kucukcekmece neighbourhood on Istanbul's European side.
The Turkish Hizbullah, which has no known links with its Lebanese namesake, is accused of seeking to overthrow Turkey's strictly secular order and install a hardline Islamic regime.
Last year police dug up the bodies of 68 suspected victims of the Hizbullah from mass graves, as part of a nationwide clampdown on the group.
Far-left underground groups have also carried out attacks on police in Istanbul.
Most recently, on September 10, a suicide bomber killed two policemen and an Australian tourist and wounded about 20 other officers.
The attack, claimed by a far-left group, was in support of a hunger strike against controversial jail reforms that has so far claimed 40 lives -- Ankara, (AFP)
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