The suicide bomber behind an attack Tuesday that left 10 Germans dead
in Istanbul’s main tourist area had registered with a refugee agency
last week, providing fingerprints that allowed officials to quickly
identify him, a Turkish official revealed Wednesday.
Turkish media, including newspapers close to the
government, identified the bomber as Nabil Fadli and said he was born in
Saudi Arabia. Turkish authorities previously had identified the bomber
as a Syrian born in 1988 with links to the Islamic State terror group.
Turkish Interior Minister Interior Minister Efkan Ala
on Wednesday confirmed reports that the bomber had registered with a
refugee agency, but said the bomber wasn't on any Turkish or
international watch lists for ISIS militants.
“Your assessment that his fingerprints were taken and
there is a record of him is correct” he told reporters at a news
conference,according to Reuters.
Turkey’s Haberturk newspaper published CCTV pictures
purportedly showing Fadli at an immigration office in Istanbul on Jan.
5. It said he was traced to the bombing after authorities took a sample
of a finger at the blast site.
The news about the bomber came as Turkish police arrested one person suspected of having a direct link to the attack.
The suspect was detained in Istanbul late Tuesday, Ala said. He didn't provide further details.
Turkish police on Wednesday arrested 13 more
suspected ISIS militants, including three Russians, but it wasn't clear
if those arrests were directly linked to the Istanbul bombing.
The Russians were detained in the Mediterranean
coastal city of Antalya, a popular destination for tourists. The
state-run Anadolu Agency said the suspects were allegedly in contact
with ISIS fighters in conflict zones and had provided logistical support
to the group. Ten other people were detained in Turkey's third largest
city, Izmir, and in the central city of Konya.
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. The Hurriyet newspaper said the woman
was detained because a mobile phone -- which she had reported stolen --
had been used to call the bomber. The paper said she was released after
questioning.
The impact of Tuesday's attack, while not as deadly
as two others last year, was particularly far-reaching because it struck
at Turkey's $30 billion tourism industry, which has already suffered
from a steep decline in Russian visitors since Turkey shot down a
Russian warplane near the Syrian border in November.
The blast –just steps from the Blue Mosque in
Istanbul's historic Sultanahmet district -- would be the first by ISIS
to target Turkey's vital tourism sector, although the militants have
struck with deadly effect elsewhere in the country.
The attack, which also wounded 15 other people --
including Germans, a Norwegian man and a Peruvian woman -- was the
latest in a string of attacks by Islamic extremists targeting
Westerners.
Germany sent a team of investigators to Istanbul on
Wednesday from its Federal Criminal Police Office, which is comparable
to the FBI, to support Turkish authorities investigating the attack.
Germany's Foreign Ministry said the number of dead
Germans in Tuesday's explosion had risen to 10 but German Interior
Minister Thomas de Maiziere said there was no sign that Germans were
specifically targeted.
"According to the investigations so far, there are no
indications that the attack was directed specifically against Germans,
so there can't be any connection to our contribution to the fight
against international terrorism," de Maiziere said.
Germany promised Tornado reconnaissance jets to aid
military effort against the Islamic State group in Syria following the
November attacks in Paris, and started flying missions from the Incirlik
air base in Turkey last week. It also sent a tanker aircraft, as well
as a frigate to help protect a French aircraft carrier in the eastern
Mediterranean.
Germany already was helping supply and train Kurdish
forces fighting ISIS in northern Iraq but has not taken a direct combat
role.
Ala urged Turkish citizens and visitors to go about
their daily lives, insisting that the country had taken "all necessary
security precautions." He said Turkey had detained as many as 220 ISIS
suspects in the week prior to the attack.
De Maiziere also said: "I see no reason to refrain
from traveling to Turkey" or for people already there to break off their
vacations.
Top German and Turkish officials already were
scheduled to meet in Berlin next week to discuss Europe's migrant
crisis, in which Turkey -- which borders both Syria and the European
Union -- is a key player. De Maiziere said those talks will now also
address "the determined fight against terrorism."
"If the terrorists aimed to destroy or endanger the
cooperation between partners, then they achieved the opposite," de
Maziere said. "Germany and Turkey are coming even closer together."
The German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier
said his country would not make any further immediate changes to its
travel advice for Turkey but could do so as the investigation into
Tuesday's Istanbul bombing progresses. The Foreign Ministry advised
Germans after the attack to avoid crowds in public places and outside
tourist sites in Istanbul.
Regional authorities didn't identify the victims and gave ages only for some of them, ranging from 51 to 73.
Turkish newspapers printed words of condolence in German.
"With you in our hearts," the Haber Turk newspaper read. "Your pain is our pain" Vatan newspaper said.
On Wednesday, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu,
his wife, de Maiziere and other Turkish officials visited the site of
the blast, placing carnations near where the attack occurred.
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