Istanbul bomber registered in Turkey but not on wanted list
A suicide bomber who killed
himself and 10 German tourists in Istanbul's historic heart had
registered with Turkish immigration authorities but was not on any list
of known militant suspects, Turkey's interior minister said on
Wednesday.
"Your assessment that his fingerprints were taken and there is a record of him is correct. But he was not on the wanted individuals list. And neither is he on the target individuals list sent to us by other countries," Ala told a joint news conference with his German counterpart Thomas de Maiziere.
Turkey’s Haberturk newspaper published what it said was a CCTV image of the bomber, identified in some local media reports as Saudi-born Nabil Fadli, at an immigration office in Istanbul on Jan. 5.
It said he was identified by a sample of a finger taken from the blast site.
Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said on Tuesday the bomber had been identified from body parts at the scene, was born in 1988, and was thought to have been living in Syria, from where he was believed to have recently entered Turkey.
Ten Germans were killed in the bombing, a spokeswoman for the German foreign ministry said, raising the death toll among Germans from 9 previously.
Turkey, which like Germany is a member of the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, has become a target for the radical Sunni militants.
It was hit by two major bombings last 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.
The Istanbul attack, targeting groups of tourists as they wandered around the square, appeared to mark a change in Islamic State's tactics against Turkey.
The
bomber, an Islamic State member thought to have come recently from
Syria, blew himself up on Tuesday in Sultanahmet square near the Blue
Mosque and Hagia Sophia, major tourist sites in one of the world's most
visited cities.
Asked about a report in the Turkish
media that the bomber had registered at an immigration office in
Istanbul a week ago, Interior Minister Efkan Ala confirmed that the
man's fingerprints were on record with the Turkish authorities."Your assessment that his fingerprints were taken and there is a record of him is correct. But he was not on the wanted individuals list. And neither is he on the target individuals list sent to us by other countries," Ala told a joint news conference with his German counterpart Thomas de Maiziere.
Turkey’s Haberturk newspaper published what it said was a CCTV image of the bomber, identified in some local media reports as Saudi-born Nabil Fadli, at an immigration office in Istanbul on Jan. 5.
It said he was identified by a sample of a finger taken from the blast site.
Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said on Tuesday the bomber had been identified from body parts at the scene, was born in 1988, and was thought to have been living in Syria, from where he was believed to have recently entered Turkey.
Ten Germans were killed in the bombing, a spokeswoman for the German foreign ministry said, raising the death toll among Germans from 9 previously.
Turkey, which like Germany is a member of the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, has become a target for the radical Sunni militants.
It was hit by two major bombings last 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.
The Istanbul attack, targeting groups of tourists as they wandered around the square, appeared to mark a change in Islamic State's tactics against Turkey.
"This incident is a bit different. In previous attacks, it
was Turks who crossed into Syria to fight Kurds and then crossed back
to attack Kurdish targets," said Aaron Stein, senior fellow at Atlantic
Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East.
"It’s different in terms of intentions and in terms of its targets," he told
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