Turkey detains 4 more in Istanbul blast probe

Police have detained a total of seven suspects in connection with Tuesday’s Istanbul suicide bomb attack, a Turkish minister said on Thursday.

The bomber, identified as a member of Islamic State who had entered Turkey as a refugee from Syria, blew himself up on Tuesday among tourists visiting some of Istanbul’s most popular attractions.

The attack claimed the lives of eleven people, all of whom foreign tourists and left fifteen other injured. Russia’s Consulate General in the Mediterranean city of Antalya confirmed that three Russians had been detained, Russian state news agency RIA said.

Turkish media said police raided a home in an affluent Istanbul neighborhood, briefly detaining one woman suspected of links to the Islamic State group, although it wasn’t clear if she was the suspect Ala was referring to.

After Tuesday’s attack, which killed German nationals, Turkish authorities blamed ISIL, with Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu pledging to battle the armed group until it no longer “remains a threat” to Turkey or the world.

Turkey has faced increased violence in recent months generated by the Islamic State and after a ceasefire broke down between the Turkish government and PKK Kurdish rebel militants – which led to airstrikes by Turkey and bombings by rebels.

The prime minister vowed to reveal the “real actors” behind the IS which Turkey has said was behind last year’s bombings in the southeastern city of Suruc and the capital Ankara, and now in Istanbul. On Wednesday, Davutoglu, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere and other Turkish officials visited the site of the blast and placed carnations there.

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

Germany’s interior minister says there are no indications so far that Germans were specifically targeted in the attack in Istanbul.

Almost 3,000 Russians, mostly from the predominantly Muslim North Caucasus, are believed to have gone to fight alongside IS militants in Syria.

Those killed in Tuesday’s blast included two couples.

Efkan Ala said during a news conference with his German counterpart that the suspect was detained late Tuesday.

Turkish newspapers printed words of condolence in German.