A heavily armed gunman from Libya carrying a Syrian passport opened fire at Topkapi Palace, one of Istanbul’s main tourist attractions on Wednesday (November 30), wounding a Turkish soldier and a security guard before being shot and killed by police.
From all indications, the assailant, who had entered Turkey only days ago, arrived at the palace in a car with Syrian license plates. Minutes before the attack, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu had announced tough economic sanctions on Syria to protest its government’s crackdown on an eight-month-old pro-democracy uprising.
COMMENT: Topkapi Palace, the seat of the Ottoman sultans for almost 400 years, is located in the city’s historic Sultanahmet district, which also includes the Blue Mosque and the former Byzantine church of Haghia Sophia. The palace attracts thousands of visitors each year.
Earlier this year, police arrested alleged Turkish members of al-Qaeda accused of planning to attack the US Embassy in Ankara and another group in the southern city of Adana, which is home to the Incirlik Air Base used by the US to transfer non-combat supplies to Iraq and Afghanistan. Authorities have said al-Qaeda planned to attack Incirlik in the past, but was deterred by high security. An attack blamed on al-Qaeda-affiliated militants outside the US Consulate in Istanbul in 2008 left three assailants and three police officers dead. Homegrown Islamic militants tied to al-Qaeda attacked the British Consulate, a British bank and two synagogues in Istanbul in 2003, killing 58 people.
From all indications, the assailant, who had entered Turkey only days ago, arrived at the palace in a car with Syrian license plates. Minutes before the attack, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu had announced tough economic sanctions on Syria to protest its government’s crackdown on an eight-month-old pro-democracy uprising.
COMMENT: Topkapi Palace, the seat of the Ottoman sultans for almost 400 years, is located in the city’s historic Sultanahmet district, which also includes the Blue Mosque and the former Byzantine church of Haghia Sophia. The palace attracts thousands of visitors each year.
Earlier this year, police arrested alleged Turkish members of al-Qaeda accused of planning to attack the US Embassy in Ankara and another group in the southern city of Adana, which is home to the Incirlik Air Base used by the US to transfer non-combat supplies to Iraq and Afghanistan. Authorities have said al-Qaeda planned to attack Incirlik in the past, but was deterred by high security. An attack blamed on al-Qaeda-affiliated militants outside the US Consulate in Istanbul in 2008 left three assailants and three police officers dead. Homegrown Islamic militants tied to al-Qaeda attacked the British Consulate, a British bank and two synagogues in Istanbul in 2003, killing 58 people.
