Kurdish female members, foreground and background, of the Popular Protection Units stand guard at a check point near the northeastern city of Qamishli, Syria, March. 3, 2013

A female suspected member of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) was killed on Friday in Istanbul in a police operation against militants suspected to be planning suicide attacks, reports said.

Counter-terrorism police raided a home in Istanbul’s Sancaktepe district after receiving a tip-off that PKK militants had arrived in Turkey’s biggest city to carry out suicide attacks, Dogan news agency said.

A female member of the PKK was killed in the ensuing shootout with police while three other militants were detained, Dogan said.

Police also detained 10 suspected members of the radical Marxist Leninist Communist Party (MLKP) in a separate operation in several districts of Istanbul, state-run Anatolia news agency said.

The MLKP, an offshoot of the Turkish Communist Party/Marxist-Leninist (TKP-ML) set up in 1994, is a small armed group that seeks to replace Turkey’s political system with a communist regime.

It is considered by the Turkish authorities as close to the PKK, which has over the years narrowed its demands from an independent Kurdish state to greater autonomy and cultural rights.

Related articles across the web

• World › Turkish jets kill at least 55 in airstrikes on Kurdish rebels
• Turkey air strikes 'kill' scores of Kurdish rebels
• 10,000 protest in Turkey against Kurdish rebel violence
• Turkish officer misses own wedding over fears of Kurdish rebel attacks
• 100,000 attend 'anti-terrorism rally' in Istanbul, Turkey
• Turkey launches air strikes against Kurdish militants: sources
• 10,000 protest in Turkey against Kurdish rebel violence
• Turkish military says it has killed 5 Kurdish rebels
• 10,000 Protest in Turkey Against Kurdish Rebel Violence
• Turkish soldier killed in PKK attack in southeast: security sources