ISTANBUL – Turkey’s government defeated a coup attempt by a renegade faction of the military, restoring control on Saturday to the major cities after a night of chaos and clashes that killed nearly 200 and has plunged the already troubled country into uncertainty.
More than 100 coup plotters are now dead, acting military chief Gen. Umit Dundar said on live TV, while another 90 people – including 47 civilians – were killed as ordinary Turks poured into the streets to confront tanks amid pitched battles in the main cities. At least 1,154 were wounded, officials said.
By morning, government forces had closed in on the army headquarters in Ankara, the final stronghold of coup plotters, said a senior Turkish official who added that 1,563 members of the military have been arrested so far.
In Istanbul, the streets were largely empty after a night of gunfire, explosions and violent confrontations on the bridges and in the city’s main squares.
The unrest raised fears that Turkey, a close U.S. ally, especially in the fight against the Islamic State, could be destined for a prolonged period of civil strife that would reverberate across an already bloodstained and chaotic region.
Turkey’s top judicial body HSYK has just ordered the detention of 2,745 Gülen-linked judges after the failed coup attempt.
“This government, brought to power by the people, is in charge,” he said. “A minority group within the armed forces targeted the integrity of our country.”
Süleyman Soylu, Turkish minister for Labor, has accused the US of being behind the failed coup on live TV.
Hours earlier, branches of the police and army had fought for control of major government buildings in the capital, Ankara, as protesters swarmed onto the streets to confront the tanks rumbling into their cities.
Helicopters flown by coup supporters fired on buildings and into the crowds gathering to challenge the attempt to overthrow Turkey’s government, in the most significant challenge to the country’s stability in decades.
Gruesome video footage posted on social media showed tanks crushing protesters who tried to block their path, bloodied bodies strewn on the streets of Ankara and helicopters firing into civilian crowds, raising fears that the toll could be higher.
Rebel officers fired on both the presidential palace and parliament, officials said, causing significant damage to the building. Coup supporters set fire to intelligence headquarters in Ankara, and also seized part of the country’s military headquarters.
By the early hours of Saturday morning, Turkish officials said the government had managed to claw back control from the coup plotters, whom Gen. Dundar described as coming mainly from the air force, military police and armored units.
The Interior Ministry reported that five generals and 29 colonels had been removed from their posts.
The army chief of staff, Gen. Hulusi Akar, was rescued from an air base in Ankara where he had been held hostage since the start of the coup, reported Anadolu Saturday morning.
Gen. Dundar was appointed acting military chief overnight, and on Saturday said that Turkey had “displayed a historic cooperation between the government and the people.”
“The nation will never forget this betrayal,” he said.
A Turkish warplane shot down a helicopter carrying some of the coup leaders, the officials also said, and the state broadcaster, which had been silent for several hours after it was overrun by soldiers, was back on the air by morning.
Istanbul Ataturk Airport reopened after being closed for hours and the national airline had resumed flights.
War planes swooped over central Istanbul in the early morning hours Saturday, setting off sonic booms and shattering glass as police and soldiers clashed in the city’s famed Taksim Square.
“The situation is largely in control,” Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told Turkey’s NTV television channel. “All commanders are in charge. The people have taken steps to address this threat.”
But with reports that gunfire and explosions were still being heard on the streets of Istanbul and Ankara well into the morning, it was far from clear whether the worst crisis in Turkey in decades had been resolved.
The splits within the security forces and the chaotic scenes on the streets revealed a society polarized between supporters and opponents of the deeply controversial Erdogan, whose autocratic behavior has alienated some segments of Turkish society but who remains hugely popular among his core constituents.
With the main opposition parties making statements condemning the coup attempt, and most of the important branches of the military and security services rallying to the government’s side, it did not appear that the renegades had widespread support.
The upheaval began Friday evening when tanks and other armored vehicles appeared on bridges across the Bosporous in Istanbul and F-16 fighter jets began streaking through the skies.
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