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Turkey Nabs 2 Foreigners at Istanbul Airport over Nightclub Attack
[ENGLISH.ALMANAR.LB] Turkish authorities on Tuesday detained two foreign nationals at Istanbul’s main airport over suspected links to a nightclub attack claimed by ISIS ’jihadists’ that killed 39, Dogan news agency said.The pair were detained on entering Ataturk International Airport and have been taken to Istanbul police headquarters for questioning, it added. The government said Monday that eight people were tossed into the calaboose but the number then increased to 14 after new detentions in the Anatolian city of Konya. The main suspect, who remains on the lam, was staying in a rented flat in Konya before moving to Istanbul to carry out the attack, press reports said. He has not been named but is reportedly from Central Asia. The airport detentions bring the total number of arrests over the attack to 16. Kyrgyzstan rules out nightclub shooting suspect [BBC] The passport image circulated on social media shows a similar-looking man to the suspect, but the head of the Kyrgyz security services told the BBC that the passport holder was not involved. Rakhat Sulaimanov said the man had been questioned by both their agents and Turkish security and that he had nothing to do with the attack. The Kyrgyz authorities say they were not contacted by their Turkish counterparts about the possible connection. Tairbek Sarpashev from the Kyrgyz state registration service, said they only started to investigate the man in question after seeing the media reports. Turkish media have said the man police are investigating is from Central Asia and had rented a flat in the central city of Konya with a woman believed to be his wife and two children, who have been detained.
He used flares to light up his targets before unleashing a hail of bullets known for their tendency to ricochet as well as penetrate barriers, creating horrific carnage in a short amount of time, the sources said. Eyewitnesses said the killer carried out the operation calmly and precisely, keeping his ground and picking off his victims in a systematic manner. His magazines had been bound together to allow him to reload rapidly, and when both were empty, he dropped them on the floor. Six were used in total, the Vatan newspaper said. Eyewitnesses also reported that the killer used flash bombs to illuminate and disorient his targets. A bartender who survived the attack, quoted by Hurriyet, said: 'The terrorist threw something that lit up every time he finished his magazine. It happened at least three times.' In another sign of the murderer's professionalism, he reportedly dropped the flash bombs behind him so that he would be able to see his victims clearly without being blinded by the light, according to the Sozcu newspaper. When police released pictures of the suspect, his neighbours in Konya called a police hotline and identified him, leading investigators to the family home, police added. Private Dogan news agency said airports and border crossings were put on high alert and that anyone resembling the wanted gunman was being stopped and questioned by police.
Together with a unexpected jump in inflation, anxiety over the attack pushed the Turkish lira to a new historic low of 3.6 to the US dollar. Posted by: Fred 2017-01-04 |
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