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Two gunmen reportedly dressed in Santa costumes struck Istanbul's Reina nightclub on New Year's Eve, killing at least 35 people and injuring at least another 45, the BBC reported Dec. 31. The attack is all but certainly inspired by or directed by the Islamic State, one of the three strands of terrorism currently threatening Turkey. At the time of this writing, at least one attacker is reportedly still at large, perhaps in the nightclub. Reina is a popular venue on the Bosporus Strait, and as many as 700 patrons were inside it at the time of the attack.

Istanbul has been on high alert; 17,000 police officers were reportedly deployed for patrol on New Year's Eve, but the increased security apparently did not deter the militants. Turkey has been the target of multiple militant attacks from Kurdish separatists, jihadist groups and the Marxist Revolutionary People's Liberation Party Front (DHKP-C). Kurdish attacks come mostly from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK) and stem from decades-old tensions that have ignited Turkey's military campaign against the PKK. The Islamic state has begun targeting Turkey because of its incursions into Syria, which Turkey began partly because of the Islamic State threat.

Considering civilians celebrating the New Year were targeted in this attack, the incident was likely carried out by jihadists directed by or inspired by the Islamic State. Neither the TAK nor the DHKP-C is interested in targeting civilians in this manner.