Turkish PM says 4 people detained in connection with Istanbul bombing

Turkish officials have said the suicide bomber who carried out the attack in the tourist district of Sultanahmet in Istanbul was affiliated with IS.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Sawsan Chebli told reporters in Berlin on Wednesday: “the number of Germans killed has unfortunately risen to 10”.

Analysts say the attack in Sultanahmet most likely is a response to Turkey’s increased cooperation with the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State targets in Syria.

“Though Turkish intelligence, security offices are doing their best 24/7 fighting with ISIS, it is not easy for any country, for any intelligence service, for any security measures to stop all attacks”, said one official in the Turkish prime minister’s office.

But none have targeted sites frequented by foreigners – and an attack of such magnitude in central and well-known tourist area of Istanbul would be a bracing blow for the country. “I see no reason to refrain from trips to Turkey”.

The bomber, identified as Nabil Fadli, a 28-year-old Saudi-born Syrian national, gave his fingerprints at an immigration centre in Istanbul on January 5 and was allowed to move freely in the days before the bombing.

The Hurriyet daily said Turkey’s spy agency had twice issued warnings over the risk of a suicide attack in Istanbul. They said he was identified by his fingertips at the site of the explosion.

Earlier on Wednesday, Turkey’s Dogan news agency reported that three Russian citizens were detained by the Turkish police over links to terror group Islamic State.

That said, the capture of Tishrin Dam from ISIS last month by the Kurds – whose territorial expansion Turkey opposes – was “a huge first step for the Kurds in clearing out the remaining border strip controlled by IS along the Turkish border”, Wladimir van Wilgenburg, a Kurdish affairs expert embedded in Iraqi Kurdistan, told Business Insider at the time.

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.

The Istanbul attack, targeting groups of tourists as they wandered around the square, appeared to mark a change in Islamic State’s tactics against Turkey.

“Turkey will continue to punish with even greater force any threat that is directed against Turkey or its guests”, Davutoğlu said.

Officials quickly blamed ISIS for the attack that simultaneously killed 10 foreign visitors and sent shock waves through the nation’s $34 billion tourism industry.

The attack wounded 15 people, including nine Germans and citizens of Norway, Peru and South Korea.

In the largest suicide attack in the country previous year, around 100 people were killed a peace rally in the Turkish capital Ankara in October.

He said close to 200 extremists were “rendered ineffective” – the phrase used by the Turkish government to mean killed – in the 48 hours since the terror attack. Information released by regional authorities shows that the victims came from across Germany and included two couples.