PKK's splinter group the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK) has claimed responsibility for the Jan. 5 attack in the western city of Izmir which targeted a courthouse.

A police officer and a courthouse staff member were killed in a shootout with two terrorists attempting to bomb the courthouse. The terrorists were killed by police officers in the armed clashes which followed the detonation of a car bomb at the entrance of the courthouse's parking area.

Quoted by a news agency with links to the PKK, the terrorist group identified two members killed in the attack as Mustafa Çoban and Enes Yıldırım.

TAK is known to claim PKK terrorist attacks perpetrated in urban centers, against the civilian population.

The group also claimed the twin bombings which hit Istanbul's Maçka Park on Dec. 9, 2016, leaving 48 people dead, and the car bombing against off-duty soldiers in the Central Anatolian province of Kayseri on Dec. 17, 2016, which killed 14 people.

The PKK, which is also listed as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and the EU, resumed its 30-year armed campaign against the Turkish state in July 2015.