A car bomb struck near a courthouse in the western Turkish city of Izmir Thursday that was followed by a shootout between three of the assailants and police. A police officer and a courthouse employee were killed while the gunfight left two of the assailants dead.

The explosion occurred near a courthouse entrance that is used by judges, prosecutors and other employees.

District Mayor Hassan Karadag told NTV television earlier that 10 people were wounded in the explosion and one of them was in serious condition. A firefight between three of the suspected attackers and police erupted after the blast, and two of the assailants were killed, he said.

Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak said on Thursday that the man who killed 39 people in an attack on an Istanbul nightclub on New Year’s Day is probably an ethnic Uighur and Turkish security services now know where he might be hiding, .

Kaynak described the man as a “specially trained” member of a cell who carried out the attack alone and said that while the possibility of him fleeing abroad could not be ruled out, security operations inside Turkey were more likely to find him.

“The terrorist’s identity has been established by security forces and his potential whereabouts have also been determined,” Kaynak said in an interview with broadcaster A Haber, noting that they had also found out who he was linked to.

Daesh has claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was revenge for Turkish military involvement in Syria.

Police carried out a dawn raid in a town on the edge of Istanbul on Thursday and detained suspects thought to be connected to the attack, the state-run Anadolu news agency said.

Counter-terrorism police, gendarmes and special forces swooped on a housing complex in Selimpasa, a coastal town just to the west of Istanbul, after receiving intelligence that individuals who may have helped the attacker were there.

Uighurs were among those detained, local media reports said.

The Uighurs are a largely Muslim, Turkic-speaking minority in far western China with significant diaspora communities across central Asia and Turkey.

source: GULF NEWS