Istanbul bomber registered with authorities, but was not on wanted list: minister

Germany warned its citizens to avoid crowds outside tourist attractions in Istanbul, saying on a government website that further violent clashes and “terrorist attacks” are expected across Turkey. In Kilis province, eight individuals suspected of having links with ISIL were caught by the TSK while trying to enter Syria from Turkey.

Russia’s consulate confirmed that three citizens had been detained while a source in one of the country’s security agencies told the TASS news agency that there was evidence proving they “had links or participated in foreign terror groups”. A suicide bomber detonated a bomb in the heart of Istanbul’s historic distr…

Davutolu calledGermanChancellorAngela Merkelto express his condolences following the attack while adding that Turkish investigators would share details of their probe with Berlin.

Turkish media however have named him as Nabil Fadli, born in Saudi Arabia. Ala said the suicide bomber wasn’t on any Turkish or global watch lists for IS militants.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said during a visit to Istanbul Wednesday: “According to the investigations so far, there are no indications that the attack was directed specifically against Germans, and so there can’t be a connection to our contribution to the fight against global terrorism”.

A synagogue bombing in the Tunisian resort of Djerba in 2002 attributed to al-Qaeda killed 19 people, including 14 Germans.

The tourists were part of a group of 33 who had been staying at a boutique hotel in the upmarket Galata district and had been bussed to Sultanahmet that morning, media reports said. But the militants appear increasingly desperate to strike outside their strongholds as they lose territory in Iraq and Syria.

“I didn’t finish the tour, you know, the tour I had bought”.

Burton and her husband said they would not be deterred visiting again.

Shocking photos of several bodies on the ground in the square known as the Hippodrome were too graphic to publish.

Directly and indirectly, tourism makes up about 12 percent of Turkey’s gross domestic product, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council, an worldwide travel-industry organization, with the country welcoming about 40 million tourists a year.

Fifteen people were also injured in the attack, two of whom are still in a critical condition.

“The terrorists are enemies of all free people, indeed their enemies of all humanity”, Chancellor Angela Merkel said in response to the attacks.

It was hit by two major bombings past year blamed on the group, in the largely Kurdish town of Suruc near the Syrian border and in the capital Ankara, the latter killing more than 100 people at a pro-Kurdish rally in the worst attack of its kind on Turkish soil.