11 detained over attack on pro-gov’t newspaper offices in Istanbul

ISTANBUL – Doğan News Agency

DHA Photo

Istanbul’s anti-terror police have detained 11 suspects in connection with the Feb. 11 attacks on the offices of dailies Yeni Şafak and Yeni Akit. Reports indicate that the suspects are linked to an offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) called the United Freedom Forces (BÖG). 

Police launched simultaneous operations into 20 addresses across Istanbul’s nine districts early on March 1 as part of the investigation into the attacks against the two pro-government newspapers. 

Eleven suspects were detained in the raids, while BÖG print and digital documents were seized. 

All suspects were taken to the police’s counter-terrorism unit for interrogation following a medical examination at the Haseki Training and Research Hospital in the Fatih district of Istanbul. 

Three or four masked attackers targeted Yeni Şafak’s offices in the Yenidoğan neighborhood of Istanbul’s Bayrampaşa district at 5 a.m. on Feb. 11. Reports indicate that the assailants threw Molotov cocktails at the building entrance and opened fire with long-barreled weapons. 

The attack was followed by a second assault with Molotov cocktails and weapons about 30 minutes later, this time on the Yeni Akit building in the Halkalı Merkez neighborhood of Küçükçekmece. The attackers reportedly arrived at the back door of the office building, threw Molotov cocktails at a parked pickup truck, and opened fire on the building.