Official: IS suspects aimed to attack Turkish party congress

ANKARA, Turkey – A senior official says two suspected Islamic State militants who were shot dead in a police operation were aiming to attack the ruling party’s congress which re-elected President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as its chairman.

The two suspects — who have not been identified — were killed in a police operation in the capital Ankara on Sunday, hours before the Justice and Development Party’s congress was due to begin. Ankara governor Ercan Topaca said Monday that police seized sketches and diagrams indicating they aimed to target the congress as well as events organized by civil society groups.

Turkey has been hit by a string of attacks blamed on IS and Kurdish militants since 2015. On New Year’s Eve, a gunman killed 39 people in an Istanbul nightclub. IS claimed the attack.