Two masked assailants carried out an armed attack during Sunday mass in Santa Maria (St. Mary Draperis) church in Istanbul’s Sariyer district. The Islamic State (ISIS) claimed responsibility later in the day.
The two suspected gunmen are among those arrested and are believed to be linked to ISIS, Tunc said on X. Turkey’s interior minister had identified them as nationals of Tajikistan and Russia.
Following Sunday’s attack, ISIS published a picture of two masked men on its propaganda Telegram channel, claiming they had carried out “the attack on a Christian church” in Istanbul. The group said it was in response to calls from its leader to target Christians and Jews.
Tunc added that the 25 suspects were charged with aggravated intentional homicide as well as membership of an illegal organization.
ISIS has conducted numerous attacks in Turkey, including on a nightclub during New Year’s Eve celebrations in 2017, killing 39 people.
According to the interior ministry, over 2000 people suspected of ties to ISIS have been arrested in Turkey since mid-2023. In December, 304 suspects were arrested in one country-wide operation.
ISIS formerly controlled large areas of Iraq and Syria, but the jihadists were declared territorially defeated in 2019 after their rapid rise to power in 2014 exacerbated security and humanitarian crises in the region.
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