Turkey arrests suspect with link to Istanbul blast

Russia’s Consulate General in Turkey’s Mediterranean city, Antalya, confirmed that three of its nationals had been detained over suspected connections with the “Islamic State” (IS).

An anti-terror squad conducted the raid a day after a suicide bomber killed 10 people in Istanbul.

Russian police have said that several thousand Russians are believed to have gone to Syria to join ISIS. Bearing in mind that the arrests were made in hot pursuit and these people were not directly involved in the commission of the terrorist attack, it means that they were within the line of vision of the Turkish special services.

Turkish authorities have identified the bomber as a Syrian born in 1988, who had recently entered Turkey, and officials say he had IS links. On Wednesday, Davutoglu, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere and other Turkish officials visited the site of the blast and placed carnations there.

Turkey has stepped up the fight against terrorist militants, following repeated criticism of its shortcomings in controlling the flow of jihadist fighters from crossing its volatile border with Syria, and after a number of deadly attacks against the country were attributed to IS militants past year in Sanliurfa, Ankara and in Istanbul Tuesday.

“According to police reports, these persons have refused to make contact with Russian consular employees”, the ministry said on its website.

The state government in Brandenburg said a couple aged 71 and 73 from Falkensee, outside Berlin, were killed, while authorities in the western state of Rhineland-Palatinate say a couple from there were killed – the husband was 61 and the wife 59. “Your pain is our pain” Vatan newspaper said.