Turkish police have arrested one person in connection with the suicide bombing in Istanbul that killed 10 foreigners, most of them German tourists, Turkish Minister of the Interior Efkan Ala said yesterday.
The suspect was detained late on Tuesday, Ala said during a news conference with his German counterpart. He did not provide further details.
Turkish media reports said police had raided a home in an affluent neighborhood of Istanbul, detaining one woman suspected of having links to the Islamic State (IS) group.
Yesterday, Turkish police also arrested 13 suspected IS militants, including three Russian nationals, a day after the bombing in Istanbul’s historic Sultanahmet district. The attack, which also wounded 15 other people, including Germans, a Norwegian man and a Peruvian woman, was the latest in a string of attacks by Islamic extremists targeting Westerners.
Turkish authorities identified the bomber as a Syrian born in 1988, who had recently entered Turkey and was not among a list of potential bombers wanted by Ankara.
Turkish media, including newspapers close to the government, identified him as Nabil Fadli, and said he was born in Saudi Arabia.
Turkish Minister of Justice Bekir Bozdag said that authorities were working to identify people connected to the attacker. He would not provide details on the investigation, saying it would compromise those efforts.
The Russians were detained in the Mediterranean coastal city of Antalya, a popular destination for tourists, but it was not clear if the arrests were directly linked to the Istanbul bombing.
The state-run Anadolu Agency said the suspects were allegedly in contact with IS fighters in conflict zones and had provided logistical support to the group.
Ten other people were detained in Turkey’s third-largest city, Izmir, and in the central city of Konya.
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in November said the number of Russians that left for Syria to fight for the IS group stood at 2,719. Of these, 160 have been killed, 73 have returned and been tried and 36 have been arrested.
Tuesday’s blast, just steps from the historic Blue Mosque, was the first by IS to target Turkey’s vital tourism sector, although the militants have struck with deadly effect elsewhere in the country.
Eight Germans were among the dead and nine others were wounded, some seriously, German Minister of Foreign Affairs Frank-Walter Steinmeier told reporters in Berlin.
The nationalities of the two others killed in the blast were not immediately released, but both were foreigners.
German Minister of the Interior Thomas de Maziere arrived in Istanbulto to discuss the attack with Ala and other Turkish officials.
It was not clear if the attacker had specifically targeted Germans.
Germany committed Tornado reconnaissance jets to the military effort against the Islamic State group in Syria following the November attacks in Paris, and started flying missions from the Incirlik air base in Turkey last week. It also sent a tanker aircraft and a frigate to help protect a French aircraft carrier in the eastern Mediterranean.
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