Two armed and masked ISIS terrorists attacked a Roman Catholic church in Istanbul during Sunday Mass on January 28.
One person was killed in the attack, which was captured on security camera footage.
Two masked gunmen shot one person dead during Sunday service at a church in Istanbul, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said https://t.co/FLIXYiCV5f pic.twitter.com/gLJyPZBRkK
— Reuters (@Reuters) January 28, 2024
The victim’s identity has not been released, but local reports say that his initials are C.T. and he was 52 years old.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that the armed assailants attacked the Santa Maria Church in the Sariyer district at 11:40 a.m.
Meydan Medy, the official Turkish media organ of ISIS, claimed responsibility for the attack.
It’s official now.
Meydan Medy, the official Turkish media organ of ISIS, claimed responsibility for the attack on a church in Istanbul today. https://t.co/AMvpWm5cMV pic.twitter.com/1NggURepuG
— Çağatay Cebe (@Mucagcebe) January 28, 2024
Yerlikaya told reporters that authorities had raided more than 30 locations across Istanbul and detained 47 people.
Alarabiya News reports that two people have been arrested for the attack and are believed to be linked to ISIS. They were captured at one of the last raids.
“Both of the suspects are foreign nationals. One of them is from Tajikistan and the other is Russian, and we evaluated them to be with Islamic State,” Yerlikaya said.
The Alarabiya report noted, “Yerlikaya said Turkish authorities had detained 2,086 people suspected of ties to ISIS during 1,046 operations since June 2023, and that 529 people had been arrested.”