Prosecutors probe terror links over radicalized teen’s İzmir assault
IZMIR
Radicalization linked to extremist Islamist groups of the 16-year-old assailant is likely the motive behind the deadly Sept. 8 police station attack in the western province İzmir, though prosecutors on Sept. 9 were still investigating a possible direct organizational link to terrorism.
Dozens gathered on Sept. 9 for the funerals of two police officers a day after they were killed by a high-school student who carried out the attack with a shotgun belonging to his father.
The perpetrator, identified as E.B., was detained, though authorities noted that the motive behind the shooting remains unclear.
Social media accounts linked to E.B. revealed posts glorifying groups affiliated with the ISIL terrorist organization.
Shortly before the attack, the assailant wrote that he would execute the attack and become a “martyr,” media reports said, adding that that his phone also bore the ISIL logo.
Local media cited the father as saying that his son’s behavior had recently grown erratic.
“He had started visiting strange websites, praying constantly and telling us, ‘You are all infidels.’ Normally he was a timid boy, so this shocked us.”
Footage of the incident showed the wounded teenager shouting “God is Great” in Arabic while lying on the pavement as police officers subdued him.
Prosecutors on Sept. 9 were investigating whether the act was the result of individual radicalization alone, or if the teenager had ties to ISIL or another militant network and acted on orders.
In connection with the case, authorities detained 27 individuals thought to be in contact with the assailant, among them a 32-year-old Iranian national residing in Istanbul.
Separately, Istanbul police on Sept. 9 detained 19 ISIL suspects in an operation, but authorities did not directly link it to the İzmir assault.
The operation was initiated after the identification of “10 foreign terrorist suspects who were reported to have links to conflict zones and assessed as posing a threat to Türkiye,” the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office said.
The other nine individuals were found to have engaged in pro-organizational social media activity, disseminating ISIL propaganda and using digital applications employed for internal communications within the group, the statement added.
