Turkish police stand guard outside the Italian Santa Maria Catholic Church after two masked gunmen were shooting during Sunday service, in Istanbul, Turkey.
Credit: Reuters Photo
Istanbul: Two masked gunmen shot and killed a man during a church service Sunday morning in Istanbul, Turkish officials said, an attack that the Islamic State group later took responsibility for.
In a communiqué issued Sunday evening, the Islamic State group said the attack was in response to a call by the terrorist group's leadership to target Jews and Christians everywhere, according to the SITE intelligence group, which monitors extremist propaganda.
The attack took place around 11:40 am at the Santa Maria church, an Italian Catholic church in the Sariyer district of Istanbul, the Interior Minister, Ali Yerlikaya, wrote on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter.
On Sunday night, Yerlikaya identified the victim as Tuncer Cihan and said that two suspects had been arrested.
According to SITE, the Islamic State group said the assailants had carried out the attack using pistols, killing one and wounding at least one other.
The government-appointed governor of Istanbul, Davut Gul, said in televised remarks at the scene that the victim was a 52-year-old Turkish citizen.
"Two masked assailants went in, shot at someone and that person was killed," Gul said.
Among the crowd at the church was the Polish consul in Istanbul, Witold Lesniak, with his wife and two of his children.
Pope Francis expressed sympathy for the Santa Maria church community Sunday, and Italy's Foreign Minister, Antonio Tajani, stated in a post on X his "sorrow and firm condemnation" of the killing.
Istanbul's mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, wrote on X, "We will never allow those who try to destroy our unity and peace by attacking the religious places of our city."
Last month, Turkey arrested three people suspected of belonging to the Islamic State group who, it said, were planning to attack churches, synagogues and the Iraqi Embassy in the country, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
The news agency said that 29 other people connected to the apparent plotters were also arrested
This month, the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a bombing attack that killed 84 people in Kerman, Iran, during a memorial for General Qassem Soleimani.
The Islamic State group has been linked to several attacks in Turkey in recent years, including a massacre at a nightclub in Istanbul in 2017, when a lone gunman killed dozens of people during New Year's celebrations.
In recent decades, Turkey, a predominantly Muslim country with a secular state system, has experienced several attacks against Christian communities, often by the nationalist fringe.
In 2007, a prominent Turkish Armenian journalist, part of the small Christian community in Turkey, was shot dead as he left his office in central Istanbul.
That same year, three evangelical employees of a publishing house were found with their throats slit.
In 2006, an Italian priest was shot to death in the northeastern province of Trabzon, and in 2007, another Italian priest was stabbed in Izmir.