A Turkish court has jailed three more suspects in connection with a shooting outside the Israeli Consulate General in İstanbul last week, bringing the total number of people in pretrial detention to 12, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
The suspects were detained as part of an ongoing investigation into the armed attack in the Beşiktaş district on April 7, where gunmen opened fire near a police checkpoint outside the consulate.
The attack left one gunman dead and two others wounded following the shootout with police. Two officers were also lightly sinjured. The wounded suspects are undergoing medical treatment.
Earlier, nine suspects had already been jailed, while three were released, two of them under judicial supervision.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, although Turkish media reports said the gunman who was killed had alleged links to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
Last week, Justice Minister Akın Gürlek posted on X that officers had detained 198 suspects in a simultaneous operation in 34 provinces against “the terrorist organization Daesh,” another name for ISIL, in connection with the attack on April 7.
There were no Israeli diplomats at the consulate at the time, as most had been evacuated following the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which triggered the ongoing war in Gaza.
Israel said it would not be cowed after the incident, while Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan condemned the “treacherous attack” and vowed to fight “all kinds of terrorism.”
Meanwhile, Turkey’s Interior Ministry said on Monday security forces had detained 525 suspects in nationwide operations against ISIL across 56 provinces. The raids were carried out in coordination with intelligence and counterterrorism units as part of ongoing efforts to combat the militant group.
Turkey has intensified operations against ISIL in recent months following a series of incidents, including a December attack in Yalova that killed three police officers.