Turkish police may know identity of nightclub suspect
A selfie video of the suspect in a shooting rampage that brought chaos and tragedy to a packed Istanbul nightclub early New Year's Day was broadcast by Turkish state media Tuesday as the manhunt for the killer intensified.
The Dogan News Agency and other Turkish media, citing police, reported that investigators may know the man's identity and have spoken with his wife.
The gunman is believed to be about 25 years old and from a Central Asian nation such as Uzbekistan or Kyrgyzstan, Dogan said. He arrived in the Turkish city of Konya with his wife and two children in November, the Hurriyet Daily News reported. His family has been detained.
The suspect took a cab to the club that night, spent several minutes firing about 180 bullets, then took another cab out of the area — even telling the driver he had no money and borrowing his phone, according to Hurriyet.
The suspect's wife told authorities she learned of the attack on TV and had no knowledge of any connection between her husband and the Islamic State, media outlets reported. Turkish authorities have imposed restrictions on news coverage, and few details have been formally released.
At least 16 people have been detained over alleged links to the deadly attack, including two foreign nationals arrested at Istanbul's Ataturk airport. Thirty-nine people died in the rampage early Sunday, most of them foreigners, and 69 were wounded.
In the video footage, the alleged gunman is seen quietly filming himself for less than a minute as he wanders in Istanbul's Taksim Square, a popular area for tourists. It was not clear whether the video was recorded before or after the massacre.
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, saying in a statement that a "hero soldier of the caliphate attacked one of the most famous nightclubs, where Christians celebrated their pagan holiday."
Many of the victims, however, were from Muslim-majority countries such as Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia. But Belgium, Canada, France, India and Russia also lost citizens to the carnage.
Funerals and memorials were held Tuesday for some of the dead. In Jordan, hundreds mourned Nawras Assaf, who was killed along with his colleague, Iraqi-born businessman Muhammad al-Sarraf, described by London's Daily Mail as one of the wealthiest men in Jordan. In Lebanon, Maronite Bishop Boulos Matar described fitness trainer Haykal Moussallem as a "martyr" and symbol of the need "to face violence with non-violence."
Turkey has been victimized by a series of deadly Islamic State attacks in recent months. The nation of 75 million people that borders Iraq and Syria has been a crucial ally in the U.S.-led coalition battling the Islamic State in the region.
Turkey's Prime Minister Binali Yildirim on Tuesday criticized the Obama administration's strategy for fighting the group.
"They are pretending to fight Daesh. Turkey is the only country that is leading a fight. The United States isn’t doing anything," Yildirim said, referring to the Arabic name for the Islamic State. He slammed Washington's support for Syrian Kurdish fighters Turkey considers terrorists but whom the U.S. has backed in its campaign against the militants — and he urged President-elect Donald Trump to end "this shame."