Turkiye arrests 47 alleged Daesh members over Istanbul church attack

Police officers block the road to ensure security and inspect the site after two unidentified armed men opened fire on people attending Sunday service at Santa Maria Church and killing one, in Istanbul’s Sariyer district, Turkiye on January 28, 2024 [Bünyamin Çelik – Anadolu Agency]

Turkiye’s Interior Ministry said police raided 30 locations and arrested 47 people as part of the investigation into the attack, local Turkish media reports.

According to the report, Daesh claimed responsibility for an attack on a Roman Catholic church in Istanbul during Sunday Mass that left one person dead.

The incident is still under investigation by the Turkish authorities, the report says.

The extremist group said it “attacked a gathering of Christian infidels during their polytheistic ceremony” at the Santa Maria Church in Istanbul’s Buyukdere neighbourhood on Sunday.

Two people, with their faces covered, entered the church and opened fire on one person, who did not survive the attack.

READ: Canada drops export controls for Turkiye, including drone technology

Unless otherwise stated in the article above, this work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If the image(s) bear our credit, this license also applies to them. What does that mean? For other permissions, please contact us.