Turkey detains two Syrians in deaths of activist, daughter

ISTANBUL — Turkish police have detained two suspects in connection with the slayings of a prominent Syrian activist and her U.S.born daughter, the country’s official news agency said Saturday.

Arouba Barakat, 60, and her 23-year-old daughter, Halla, were stabbed in their Istanbul home late last month. Halla Barakat worked as a journalist for the opposition’s Orient news.

Turkey’s official Anadolu news agency reported that security cameras pointed police to a Syrian citizen in western Turkey’s Bursa province. The main suspect is said to be the grandson of Arouba Barakat’s uncle. Anadolu said police also detained the suspect’s former roommate, another Syrian.

According to the news agency, police inspected more than 100 hours of footage and found that the main suspect traveled from Bursa to Istanbul by boat on Sept. 19 and took public transportation to the district where the victims lived. He returned to Bursa the next day.

Police are now investigating his shoes to see whether they match a print found at the scene of the double homicide.

The slayings shook the Syrian opposition community and prompted U.S. State Department condemnation.

Arouba Barakat’s sister, Shaza, said her family had been critical of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government and suggested it might have been behind the killings.

There were four previous killings of Syrian journalists in Turkey, which the Islamic State militant group has claimed. A fifth journalist survived two attacks.