ISIL bomber wounds five policemen in Turkey’s southeast

GAZİANTEP – Doğan News Agency

DHA Photo

Five police officers have been wounded as a militant of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) blew his room up ahead of an anti-terror operation in Turkey’s southeastern Gaziantep province. 

Anti-terror police initiated an operation against an ISIL cell house in Gaziantep’s Beylerbeyi neighborhood on Nov. 14, after receiving intelligence that a militant related to the Oct. 10 Ankara bombings had entered the flat. 

Special operations units were dispatched to the neighborhood, where many buildings are in construction, while anti-terror police arrived in armored vehicles. 

Before the security forces raided the fifth floor flat in the 10-story apartment, an ISIL militant noticed the operation and detonated explosives planted inside his room. 

Special operations teams already inside the flat were wounded.

Meanwhile, five police officers who were out taking security measures around the building were also injured as a balcony collapsed with the force of the explosion. 

Five wounded officials were transferred to hospitals in Gaziantep for treatment, with one officer seriously injured. 

The operation ensued after the explosion, as a militant who had fled the cell house ahead of the operation was captured on İpekyolu Boulevard.

The police also determined two other ISIL militants had escaped during the operation. However, no trace of the militants could be found after hours of searches in empty houses around the neighborhood.

Gaziantep Governor Ali Yerlikaya visited the neighborhood after the operation in order to receive information. Yerlikaya later visited the wounded policemen in the hospital.

In a written statement released on Nov. 15, the governor’s office announced that five police officers had been wounded, two women had been apprehended and three children had been taken under state protection. 

According to the statement, a suicide bomb vest, seven TNT cluster bombs and a large number of Kalashnikovs and explosives were seized in the operation.

Turkey has stepped up operations against ISIL after the twin blasts in Ankara ahead of a peace rally. Including the two suicide bombers, 102 people were killed in the deadly terror attack.