Police shot dead a man suspected of ties to Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) group militants during a raid on a district near Ankara, security sources told Turkish media Wednesday.
The incident occurred during police raids early Tuesday, two weeks before the July 7-8 NATO summit in the capital Ankara that world leaders from 32 nations, among them US President Donald Trump, will attend.
The shooting happened in Sazağası, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of the capital, during a simultaneous operation that saw police arresting more than 200 people, the DHA and IHA news agencies reported.
The suspect, M.K., was shot dead when a police special force unit raided an address where he was staying with his wife N.K.
IHA news agency said the pair had opened fire first on police, prompting a shootout.
“The police carried out an operation here but I don’t know who the suspects are supposed to be linked to,” local neighborhood leader Nuri Demir told Agence France-Presse by phone.
“We saw ambulances transporting wounded but I don’t know anything else,” he added.
Contacted by AFP, neither Ankara’s provincial governorate nor the Ankara public prosecutor’s office would make a comment on the incident.
The prosecutor’s office had on Tuesday confirmed issuing warrants for 241 people, with anti-terror police arresting 209 people in early morning raids in and around the city.
Of the total number wanted for arrest, 56 were identified as ISIL suspects, while 185 were identified as belonging to several far-left organizations branded terror groups by Ankara.
It was not immediately clear on Wednesday whether police had managed to round up any of the remaining 32 suspects.
© Agence France-Presse