Turkey Detains Seven People Linked to Istanbul Bombing

Turkish police have arrested one person in connection with the suicide bombing in Istanbul that killed 10 foreigners, majority German tourists, Turkish Minister of the Interior Efkan Ala said yesterday.

Turkish authorities identified the bomber as a Syrian born in 1988, who had recently entered Turkey and wasn’t among a list of potential bombers wanted by Turkey.

The paper reported that the suicide bomber, which it identified as Nabil Fadli, applied to Turkey’s Migration Management Directorate in the Zeytinburnu district of Istanbul on January 5 as an asylum seeker.

German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said there was no sign that Germans were specifically targeted.

Meanwhile, Turkey has detained 68 suspects, including 3 Russians, in raids across the country, state media said on Wednesday.

The Anadolu Agency report said the terrorists detonated a auto laden with explosives and simultaneously launched an attack on the district office with gunfire.

Germany’s federation of tour operators has urged German tourists to contact their travel agents and to follow the foreign ministry’s advice.

Davutoglu restated that the bomber was affiliated with the IS group, but claimed that other forces may have been behind the attack and were using the extremist group as a “pawn”. But the German foreign ministry has advised its nationals to keep away from large groups in public places and tourist attractions in Istanbul.

Despite criticism from Western allies that it was not doing enough in the fight against IS, Turkey is now hosting aircraft from the US-led coalition engaged in deadly attacks on the jihadist group strongholds. De Maiziere said those talks will now also address “the determined fight against terrorism”. And 16 people – 15 of them Syrian – were detained in Ankara for allegedly starting to scout out buildings there.

“Honestly if I’d known I wouldn’t have come”, said Yeung, a visitor from Canada who did not want her last name to be published and hadn’t heard about the attack before arriving in the square on Wednesday.

“Part of that cost, of course, was permitting lots of fighters from various parts of the world and including Turkey to pass through its borders and get into [IS] and other fundamentalist religious organisations fighting in Syria and Iraq”.

Ala said nine other Germans were wounded in the blast, along with the Norwegian and one Peruvian. “Germany and Turkey are becoming even closer”, he said.

Russia’s Consulate General in the Turkish city of Antalya has confirmed three Russians suspected of having connections to Islamic State have been arrested.

TUI added that all 10 Germans now travelling with it in Istanbul have been accounted for, adding it is now off-peak season in the Turkish city.

About 60 suspects were taken into custody as part of police operations carried out in the provinces of Ankara, Kilis, Sanliurfa, Mersin, and Adana, the Anatolia news agency reported.