Istanbul nightclub shooting

A hearing into the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) attack at Istanbul’s Reina nightclub, which left 39 people dead and 79 wounded, was held behind closed doors over “public security.”

An Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militant who is believed to have been behind a deadly attack on Istanbul International Atatürk Airport was reportedly killed in a 17-hour-long anti-terror operation in Georgia.

Police detained four Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) suspects on Sept. 18 in raids on two sleeping cells of the jihadist group in the southeastern province of Mardin, state-run Anadolu Agency reported on Sept. 19. 

The operation was jointly held by the Mardin police and the National Intelligence Organization (MİT). 

Ibrahimjon Asparov, an alleged accomplice to Abdulgadir Masharipov, the main suspect in the Reina nightclub attack on New Year's Eve, was taken into custody on July 19 in Denmark.        

Police have detained the planners of two deadly bomb attacks carried out by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in 2016 in Istanbul. 

Istanbul Governor Vasip Şahin stated that 44 people were detained in anti-terror operations on July 13, including those who planned deadly car bomb attacks in Beşiktaş and Vezneciler last year.

Danish police captured but then released on June 29 a suspected Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militant who is accused of providing the weapon Abdulkadir Masharipov used to kill 39 people at Istanbul's Reina nightclub on Jan. 1, Turkish daily Karar reported on July 12.

Authorities have determined that the phone number of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) attacker who killed 39 people in an Istanbul nightclub on Jan. 1 was registered in the cellphone of another ISIL suspect, who appeared for in a trial the first time in the Mediterranean province of Antalya on July 10. 

Turkey on June 28 marked one year since the triple suicide bombing and gun attack on the main international airport in Istanbul that left dozens dead and was blamed on Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) jihadists.

Two Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants who were killed in a police operation on May 21 in Ankara are thought to have been members of the same "sleeper cell" as Uzbek-origin Abdulkadir Masharipov, who killed New Year's Eve revelers at Istanbul's Reina nightclub. 

Istanbul's famous Reina nightclub, in which 39 people were killed in an Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) attack on Jan. 1, was demolished on May 22.

In a statement, the Istanbul Municipality said some parts of the nightclub had been built against the law.