Two masked gunmen shot and killed a person throughout a Sunday morning church service in Istanbul, Turkish officers stated, an assault that Islamic State later claimed duty for.
In an announcement launched Sunday evening, ISIS stated the assault was in response to a name from the terrorist group's management to focus on Jews and Christians all over the place, based on the SITE intelligence group. which displays extremist propaganda.
The assault happened round 11:40 am within the Church of Santa Maria, an Italian Catholic church within the Sariyer district of Istanbul, Inside Minister Ali Yerlikaya, wrote on the X social platform. On Sunday night, Mr. Yerlikaya recognized the sufferer as Tuncer Cihan and he said that two suspects have been arrested.
In keeping with SITE, the Islamic State stated the assailants carried out the assault with weapons, killing one and injuring a minimum of one different.
Istanbul's government-appointed governor, Davut Gul, stated in televised remarks on the scene that the sufferer was a 52-year-old Turkish citizen.
“Two masked assailants entered, shot at somebody and that particular person was killed,” Mr. Gul stated.
Among the many crowd within the church was the Polish consul in Istanbul, Witold Lesniak, together with his spouse and two of his youngsters.
Pope Francis expressed his sympathy to the group of Santa Maria Church on Sunday, and Italian Overseas Minister Antonio Tajani stated in a placed on X his “ache and agency conviction” of the homicide.
Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu wrote about X“We are going to by no means enable those that attempt to destroy our unity and peace by attacking the non secular locations of our metropolis.”
Final month, Turkey arrested three folks suspected of belonging to the Islamic State who it stated have been planning to assault church buildings, synagogues and the Iraqi embassy within the nation, the state-run Anadolu information company reported. The information company stated 29 different folks linked to the obvious plotters have been additionally arrested.
This month, the Islamic State claimed duty for a bombing assault that killed 84 folks in Kerman, Iran, throughout a memorial for Normal Qassim Suleimani.
Islamic State has been linked to a number of assaults in Turkey lately, together with a bloodbath at a nightclub in Istanbul in 2017, when a lone gunman killed dozens of individuals throughout New 12 months's celebrations.
In current a long time, Turkey, a predominantly Muslim nation with a secular state system, has skilled a number of assaults towards Christian communities, typically from the nationalist fringes.
In 2007, a outstanding Turkish Armenian journalist, who’s a part of the small Christian group in Turkey, was gunned down whereas leaving his workplace in downtown Istanbul. That very same yr, three evangelical staff of a publishing home have been discovered with their throats minimize. In 2006, an Italian priest was shot within the northeastern province of Trabzon, and in 2007, one other Italian priest was stabbed in Izmir.
