Turkey arrests 5 over attack on German tourists

The bomber, who died in the attack on Tuesday, was identified as Nabil Fadil, a Syrian citizen and Islamic State operative who was born in Saudi Arabia in 1988.

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.

Interior Minister Efkan Ala said seven people have been arrested in connection with the attack.

But Tuesday’s bombing was the first time in recent memory tourists were targeted in the heart of Istanbul.

Turkish police stand guard on January 14, 2016 near the site of the January 12 deadly attack in the Istanbul’s tourist hub of Sultanahmet.

Turkey was long a reluctant partner in the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State, refusing a frontline military role and arguing that only the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad – not just bombing the jihadists – could bring peace in Syria, an argument it maintains. Syrians coming by land or sea to Turkey are now required to obtain visas.

The Foreign Secretary will visit a refugee camp near the Turkey-Syria border on Friday that benefits from UK-funded food programmes. “It’s out of control”.

Windows were blown out and shop shutters were buckled by the force of the blast.
The governor’s office said security forces responded to the attack, but it was not clear if there were any casualties among the rebels.

An attack in the southern city of Suruç in July also left 33 people dead.

The Russians, who were nabbed in the Mediterranean coastal city of Antalya, were allegedly in contact with Islamic State fighters in conflict zones and had provided logistical support to the group, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

“Based on what we know from the investigation so far, there are no indications that the attack was explicitly targeting Germans so there can not be a link with our contribution to the fight against global terrorism”, he said.

The action was in retaliation after a suicide bomber murdered German holidaymakers in central Istanbul on Tuesday.

Among those arrested in the wake of Tuesday’s bloodshed were 16 people suspected of planning a major attack in Ankara, Anatolia news agency said.

He spoke a day after terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants detonated a vehicle bomb at a police station in southeast Turkey and then attacked it with rocket launchers and firearms, killing six people, including civilians, officials said.

Turkey has detained 68 suspected members of the so-called Islamic State jihadist group in raids across the country, according to state media. “Germany and Turkey are coming even closer together”. “Among these links, apart from Daesh, we have the suspicion that there could be certain powers using Daesh”, he said, using an Arabic name for Islamic State. Of that number, 847 were subsequently arrested, a lot of them foreigners.