Kurdish militants claim car bomb attack in Turkey's Izmir

Associated Press
FILE - In this Jan. 5, 2017 file photo, cars burn after a car bomb explosion in Izmir, Turkey. Kurdish militant group TAK claimed responsibility for the Izmir attack, which killed a policeman and a courthouse employee, according to a Firat News Agency report on Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2017. (DHA-Depo Photos, File via AP)

ISTANBUL (AP) — Kurdish militants have claimed responsibility for last week's car bombing attack that killed a policeman and a courthouse employee in western Turkey.

The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons, or TAK, says that two members of its "revenge team" died in the Jan. 5 Izmir attack, according to a news agency close to Kurdish militants.

Firat News Agency, quoting a statement by the group Wednesday, identified the attackers as "comrades" Mustafa Coban and Enes Yildirim, aged 29 and 25 respectively.

TAK threatened "new acts of revenge" against the "fascist" Turkish state, which is fighting Kurdish rebels in the southeast.

The two assailants were shot dead after they detonated an explosives-laden vehicle at a roadblock and engaged in a shootout with police.

Turkish authorities consider TAK to be an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK.

The PKK has waged a decades-long insurgency and is considered a terror organization by Turkey and its allies, including the U.S.

TAK has claimed multiple attacks in the past year, including two bombings that killed 45 people near a soccer stadium in Istanbul last month.