ISIL suspect in custody stabs police officer to death in Istanbul

ISTANBUL

AA photo

A police officer was stabbed to death in Istanbul on Aug. 13 by a suspected member of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), who had been detained for planning a suicide attack, Doğan News Agency has reported. 

The assailant stabbed the officer at around 11 p.m. as he was being taken out of a patrol car at the premises of the Istanbul police headquarters on Vatan Avenue following his detention.

The attacker, who was detained upon suspicion of planning to carry out a suicide bombing, was then shot dead by police.

The officer, named Sinan Acar, was rushed from the scene in an ambulance but later died of his wounds.

It was not immediately clear how the man managed to keep hold of a knife despite being taken into custody.   

The Istanbul Chief Prosecutor’s Office issued a statement on Aug. 14 saying it had imposed a gag order on coverage of the incident in “printed, visual, and Internet media, as well on social media.” 

Following Acar’s death, antiterrorism units, along with special operations teams, launched an operation in various addresses in the Fatih district’s Aksaray neighborhood. A total of 12 people, including one child, of Iraqi, Iranian and Syrian origin were then detained. Following health check-ups at the Haseki Training and Research Hospital, they were transferred to Istanbul police headquarters to give their testimonies. 

Separately, an ISIL named militant Muaz El Ahsin, who allegedly killed two Syrian journalists in the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa two years ago, was arrested on Aug. 14, state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

A Şanlıurfa court charged Muaz El Ahsin with murder for slitting the throats of Ibrahim Abdul-Qadir and Fares Hamadi. Both were journalists for the “Raqqa is being slaughtered silently” collective, a group publicizing atrocities in the Syrian city under ISIL rule.

Police detained Ahsin on Aug. 11 while he was trying to cross into Turkey illegally, the agency stated. A court later ordered him officially arrested on murder charges.

Ahsin fled to Syria after the killings on Oct. 29, 2015. Police are still searching for other suspects that may be involved in the killings.