A gunman was killed and two others wounded in a shootout Tuesday with police outside the Israeli consulate in Istanbul, the local governor said, adding that two officers were lightly wounded.
Governor Davut Gul confirmed the killing of one of the assailants during the attack that took place around 12:15 pm (09:15 GMT).
It was not immediately clear if the intended target was the Israeli consulate. No Israeli diplomats “are currently on Turkish soil,” a source familiar with the matter told AFP.
Israeli diplomatic missions had been evacuated “not only in Turkey but throughout the region for security reasons” shortly after the October 7, 2023, attacks by the Palestinian group Hamas on Israeli soil, according to the same source. Authorities have identified the assailants.
Interior Minister Mustafa Ciftci said they arrived in Istanbul by a rental vehicle from Izmit, a city about 86 kilometers (50 miles) away, and one of the assailants was affiliated with an “organization that exploits the region.”
The ministry later clarified that the gunman who was killed “had connections with a terrorist group.”
Turkish officials would not immediately reveal the group, but Turkish media said it could be Islamic State, whose members clashed with Turkish police in Yalova – which lies on the shores of the Sea of Marmara about 90 kilometers (55 miles) southeast of Istanbul.
‘Swift Response’
IS militants opened fire on police in Yalova in December, killing three officers and wounding nine others.
Turkish police have stepped up nationwide raids against IS militants, rounding up 125 suspects after that attack.
The ministry also confirmed that the two police officers who were shot were “slightly injured.”
It added that the two assailants in Tuesday’s shootout were brothers, and one has a drug record.
Turkish media reported that the three suspects were armed with long guns, dressed in camouflage, and carrying backpacks.
A large police presence was deployed in front of the consulate, located in the Levent business district on the European side of Istanbul, AFP journalists witnessed.
They also saw bloodstains on the ground in an adjacent parking lot.
The immediate vicinity of the consulate is inaccessible even under normal circumstances, as the area is cordoned off by police barriers.
Footage aired by the private NTV television showed police officers opening fire near a busy thoroughfare, as well as an injured person being carried away on a stretcher.
Istanbul’s public prosecutor’s office has launched an investigation.
“The United States condemns in the strongest terms today’s attack on the Israeli Consulate in Istanbul,” US Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack said on X.
“Attacks on diplomatic missions are attacks on the international order – and an assault on the principles that bind nations together,” he added, while commending Turkey and Turkish security forces for “their swift and decisive response.”
IS has carried out deadly attacks in Turkey, including one at a nightclub in Istanbul that killed 39 people in 2017.
