A bomb blast ripped through the Istanbul offices of a radical, pro-ISIS magazine killing a writer and wounding its editor-in-chief as well as two other people on Wednesday night.
According to a Turkish police statement, “a bomb left at the magazine’s entrance door exploded when the door opened.”
The magazine “Adimlar” regularly publishes angry anti-American content, including articles that celebrate convicted Venezuelan terrorist Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, better known as “Carlos the Jackal.”
In an interview with CNN in October, the magazine’s chief editor, Ali Osman Zor, mounted a spirited defense of the ultra-violent jihadi group ISIS.
Zor is a self-described “Islamic revolutionary” and member of a group called the Great Eastern Islamic Raiders’ Front who has served prison time in Turkey for terrorism convictions.
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Zor said he supported ISIS’ violent methods, arguing they were a natural response to what he claimed were decades of Western imperialism in the Middle East, as well as Kurdish and Shi’ite Muslim persecution of Sunni Muslims in Iraq.
“We saw one man killed,” Zor said, referring to the multiple beheadings and executions ISIS militants filmed on camera and distributed over social media.
“What about all the people killed by U.S. airstrikes? We haven’t forgotten about Abu Ghraib,” he added, referring to the notorious prison where U.S. soldiers were photographed abusing Iraqi prisoners during the U.S. occupation of Iraq.
No suspects yet
Zor was wounded in the blast. Turkish journalists photographed him sitting singed and bruised, smoking a cigarette. His brother, Unsal Zor, was killed in the blast.
Police so far have not announced possible suspects in the bombing.
A member of the magazine’s staff, who spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity for fear of his own safety, was swift to blame foreign intelligence agencies for the blast.
“We know this to be the work of CIA and Mossad. We know this is an intelligence operation,” the magazine staffer told CNN.
