ISIL suspects clash with police in Istanbul

ISTANBUL

Two policemen and two suspected militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which is linked with al-Qaeda, were injured during an anti-terror operation in Istanbul on March 25.

Turkish special forces and anti-terror units stormed several buildings in the Ümraniye neighborhood in the evening. Suspects fired back at the security forces during the operation at a building on Adem Yavuz Avenue.

According to Doğan News Agency, two policemen were injured and hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries. A male and a female suspect were injured before being captured and transferred to Haydarpaşa hospital.

Interior Minister Efkan Ala said March 26 the two injured suspects were thought to have been trained in Syria and had links to terrorist groups there.

“These people, whom we can define as terrorists, were also wounded.  We believe they received training in Syria and have links to terrorist groups there,” Ala told reporters in the eastern province of Erzurum after a question, according to Anadolu Agency.

Ala said the police had launched an operation to capture suspects to obtain more intelligence, noting that they had detained two people.

He also said one of three wounded police officers had been discharged from the hospital. “The other two officers are under medical observation. Thank God they do not have serious issues. They were slightly injured,” said Ala.

It was reported earlier in the day that one of the perpetrators of an attack against Turkish gendarmes in the Central Anatolian province of Niğde last week expressed no remorse for his act during his testimony in court.

The Niğde attack on March 20 left three dead and five injured, including a Turkish gendarmerie soldier and a police officer. All of the assailants, captured within hours, are suspected of being members of ISIL at a time when tensions are rising on Turkey's border with Syria.