Police detained 22 people on charges of being involved in the deaths of two Syrian media activists in the southeast on Friday, it was reported.
Seven Syrian nationals are among the suspects. Police suspect the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) for the murder because the way they were killed bore the hallmarks of previous ISIL atrocity. A Syrian man, T.S., said to have lived in the same home with the slain journalists is now being sought for questioning
The victims, Ibrahim Abdul-Qadir and Fares Hamadi, were found stabbed to death in their home on the second floor of a 3-storey apartment in the central Haliliye district of Sanliurfa province. Witnesses said the men had been beheaded.
Fares Hamadi was the managing editor of Ayn Watan newspaper and Ibrahim Abdul-Qadir was reporter of the Şanlıurfa-based media outlet. The weekly newspaper is published by a pro-Free Syrian Army activist group "Raqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently" (RSS).
The deceased were particularly known for their reports denouncing ISIL's atrocities. They had been threatened with death several times before their killing.
Police said the wide-scale investigation will determine the perpetrators and the motives.
