Three Turkish policemen and three gunmen were killed in an attack on the United States consulate in Istanbul on Wednesday, the city's governor said.

Witnesses told Reuters four attackers drove a car up to the high-walled compound situated to the north of Istanbul city center and overlooking the Bosphorus waterway. Three jumped out as the car halted and began firing at police who approached.

Governor Muammer Guler said one of the police officers died at the scene in a gunbattle lasting several minutes, at a time of day when many Turks go there to apply for visas. Two had died of their wounds at a nearby hospital.

Two other people were also injured.

Turkey and the United States condemned the 4 a.m. EDT attack for which no one has yet claimed responsibility.

"It is enough to say they are terrorists who carried out a dastardly and cowardly attack," U.S. Ambassador Ross Wilson told a news conference in Ankara.

"Our countries stand together in the fight against international terrorism. This was an attack on a diplomatic establishment here," Wilson said.

Television images showed four bodies lying on the ground around the police post at the consulate's gates, with paramedics carrying out heart massage on one man. The shirt of another was ripped open. Blood was flowing from the head of a third.

"They (the assailants) were four people. Three of them got out of the car and fired at the police. I saw them dead afterwards lying on the ground and many more dead among the police," Enis Yilmaz, who was going to the consulate to get a visa, told Reuters. He said the fourth man drove off.

One of the dead police officers was working at the consulate, and the two others were traffic officers.

"I was greatly saddened by the martyrdom of our three police officers in a terrorist attack," Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said in a statement.

The attack coincides with political tensions in Turkey. The ruling party is in a legal fight to avert closure over charges of anti-secular activities and police are probing a shadowy far-right group suspected of plotting a military coup.

Financial markets were not affected by the attack.

WEARING COATS

"We saw four people in a car, they were wearing coats and that seemed pretty weird in this weather. Then we saw they had guns," Muhammet Nur, 15, told Reuters.

"At first we thought they might be civil police but at that moment they drew their guns and a gun battle began," said Nur, who saw the gunbattle from a nearby cafe.

"I could not get the (car) plate number but my friend did."

Istanbul governor Guler said that the three dead gunmen were Turkish citizens, believed to be aged 25-30. Police were searching for a man suspected of driving the car.

State Department spokesman Tom Casey, speaking in Sofia, said no Americans were injured and the United States did not know who was responsible or whether the consulate was a target.

Mutlu Gunes, a 13-year-old eyewitness, said he was on his way to a mosque when he spotted several men preparing guns and placing them inside a Ford Focus car, before driving a short distance to the modern consulate complex.

"The three of them got out of the car. One of them shot a policeman in the chest and I saw one terrorist killing himself after being shot by police. Then I hid under a car," Gunes told reporters.

Turkey has seen armed attacks from a variety of groups over the years, including Maoists, Trotskyists, Kurdish separatists and Islamist militants.

"I curse strongly these kinds of terror attacks. Turkey will struggle to the end with those who organize these (attacks) and the mentality behind them," President Abdullah Gul said.

The U.S. consulate was moved to a high-security location in 2003 as major consulates and embassies stepped up security following the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York.

The most serious attacks in Turkey were in November, 2003, when 62 people were killed by Islamist militants targeting two synagogues, a bank and the British consulate.

Four people were killed and 15 wounded in an explosion in Istanbul in June 2004, before President George W. Bush visited the city.

Fellow Marine Security Guards (Past, Present and Future),

This past Monday, May 5th 2008, we lost one of the true heroes of our great legacy, LtCol James Hamilton Kean, Lieutenant Colonel, United States Marine Corps (Retired).

James Hamilton Kean, a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the Marine Corps who was instrumental in the evacuation of Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War, died suddenly on May 5, 2008. He was 66 years old.

He is survived by Rosanne Elizabeth Kean, his wife of 43 years, of Cummaquid, MA; his four children – Paige Gilbert of San Francisco, Mike Kean and Pamela Kean of Seattle, WA and Ryan Kean of Los Angeles, and his two beloved grandchildren, Benjamin and Charlotte.

Jim was born on June 30, 1941 in Pittsburgh, PA. He joined the Marine Corps in 1961 and served two tours of duty in Vietnam as an officer, earning numerous citations including two bronze stars and two purple hearts. He was Commanding Officer, Company ‘C’ Marine Security Guard Battalion and Grand Support Force Commander, United States Embassy Compound in Saigon.

On April 30, 1975, Major Jim Kean was in command of the last marines to leave the rooftop of the American Embassy in Saigon, thus ending the Vietnam War Era of American involvement in that country.  He retired in 1983 and used his fluency in Chinese and his experience of the Pacific Rim to found Yankee Traders, an export/import company dealing with Asia.

He subsequently purchased Pacific Grinding Wheel in Marysville, WA, running that companyuntil 1998 when he and Rosanne retired to Cummaquid, MA. He graduated with a degree in Asian Studies from UC Berkeley, and from the Defense Language Institute in Russian and Mandarin.

Jim was a wonderful father, dear friend, loving husband and true American Hero. His family loved him so much and are thankful for all the years they had together as a family.  His family and ours will miss him terribly.

A brief service will be held at 1:30 pm on Monday, May 12 at the National Cemetery in Bourne, MA. A reception will follow at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Barnstable, MA.
 
Submitted by Gunny Carleo

The Ambassador to New Zeland, Bill McCormick welcomed author Phillip Harland, representatives of the Tawa Historical Society, and other invited guests to the U.S Embassy, where he offered congratulations on their publication recording the stories and history of a U.S. Marine Corps site from WWII.

Ambassador McCormick authored the foreword to the booklet The Ammunition Bunker at Takapu Road, Tawa Flat in which he says, “As time marches on, and as the need to preserve our common history has been more appreciated, books, outdoor displays, and museum exhibitions are also keeping this story alive for posterity.  This booklet takes its place among these, covering a unique individual part of the wider story.”