Police kill leftist militant in Istanbul gunbattle

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish police killed one of the leaders of a left-wing armed group on Monday after laying siege to its hideaway in central Istanbul, authorities said. One police officer and one civilian also died in the shooting.

Interior Minister Besir Atalay said the four-hour raid on an apartment in a housing block on the Asian side of Istanbul was part of a wider operation in which 40 people were detained in Turkey's largest city.

Atalay said the dead militant was a leader of the "Revolutionary Headquarters" group, a little known organization with links to Kurdish separatist rebels.

Revolutionary Headquarters is suspected of being behind attacks on a military barracks and on a building housing the offices of the ruling AK Party, Atalay said.

Istanbul Governor Muammer Guler told broadcasters that the police raid was one of more than 60 carried out in Istanbul overnight against Islamist and leftist militants suspected of planning "sensational attacks."

Heavily-armed special forces surrounded the apartment block in the early morning. At the height of the siege, thick smoke billowed from a window of the block where residents were trapped inside their homes as police and militants exchanged fire.

Police said the militants killed one civilian and wounded a television cameraman during the shooting. Six police were wounded. Explosives were found inside the apartment in the district of Bostanci.

The raids came days before May Day, when police are usually on alert for clashes with leftist militants. Last week, Turkey declared May Day a public holiday.

Islamist radicals have carried out bomb attacks in predominantly Muslim Turkey in the past, most notably in 2003 when al Qaeda militants killed more than 60 people in a series of bombings in Istanbul.

"These are extreme leftist, separatist and radical groups. There are more than 10 detained in the operations. Terrorists responded by throwing bombs in some places and seven policemen were wounded," Guler said.

Turkey has also cracked down on members of the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Several armed leftist, as well as radical Islamist groups, are active in Turkey. (Writing by Ibon Villelabeitia; Editing by Richard Balmforth)