Reports: Istanbul attacker caught
ISTANBUL — A gunman suspected of killing 39 people during a New Year’s attack on an Istanbul nightclub has been caught in a police operation, Turkish media reports said early today.
The suspect was captured in a special operations police raid on a house in Istanbul’s Esenyurt district on the European side of the Turkish metropolis, private NTV television reported. The broadcaster said the alleged gunman had been staying in the house belonging to a friend from Kyrgyzstan.
The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the nightclub massacre, saying the attack in the first hours of Jan. 1 was in reprisal for Turkish military operations in northern Syria. The man identified as the suspect had been on the run since the attack.
Hurriyet newspaper and other media have identified the gunman as Abdulkadir Masharipov, an Uzbekistan national. The suspect was to undergo medical checks before being taken to police headquarters for questioning, the paper said in its online edition.
Dogan news agency published what it said was the first image of the attacker. It showed a bruised, black-haired man in a gray, bloodied shirt being held by his neck. Private NTV television said the gunman had resisted arrest.
He had reportedly been injured while carrying out the deadly attack on the Reina nightclub on the Bosporus.
NTV reported that the alleged gunman’s Kyrgyz friend and three women, whose nationalities were not given. His 4-year-old child, who was with him at the home, was taken into protective custody.
Hurriyet newspaper said the alleged gunman’s wife and 1-year old daughter were caught in a police operation Thursday.
Police established his whereabouts four or five days ago, but delayed the raid so they could monitor his movements and contacts, NTV reported.
The television channel also broadcast footage showing plain-clothed police taking away a man in a white top and sweat pants, forcing his head down. The station said the images showed the gunman’s Kyrgyz friend being taken to a police vehicle.
The state-run Anadolu Agency likewise reported the arrest and identified the gunman, only with a slightly different spelling of his first name, Abdulgadir. It said a Kyrgyz man and three women were detained with him
Anadolu said the suspects were being taken to Istanbul’s main police headquarters for questioning. Police were carrying out raids on other suspected IS cells, the news agency said without providing details.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu posted a Twitter message thanking the interior minister, Suleyman Soylu, police and intelligence organizations “who caught the Reina attacker in the name of the people.”
Earlier in the day, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said the Reina nightclub attack had been carried out professionally with the help of an intelligence organization, a claim he had made in the first days after the attack. He did not name the organization suspected of being involved.
Hundreds of people were gathered at the swanky Reina nightclub to celebrate the end of a tumultuous 2016 only to become the first victims of 2017. The gunman shot a police officer and a civilian outside the club, then stormed the premises.
Most of the dead in the attack on the upscale club were foreign nationals, from the Middle East. The gunman had reportedly left Reina in a taxi.
Authorities have arrested about three dozen people around the country since the attack on the upmarket club that took place in the hours after revelers rang in the new year.
The Turkish authorities quickly identified the suspect from closed-circuit television, and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to bring him to justice.
The arrest comes days after the manhunt led police to a house in which authorities found $150,000 during a raid, Hurriyet and other Turkish media reported this week.
The district where the suspect was captured, Esenyurt, on the European side of Istanbul, is a former slum that has been rapidly redeveloped with new apartment blocks housing many refugees and migrants.
Police on Friday also arrested two foreign nationals from the Uighur ethnic group accused of being members of a terrorist organization and assisting in 39 counts of murder, according to Anadolu.
IS’s decision to claim credit for this latest attack was seen as marking a watershed in its relationship with Turkey. The group organized several major terrorist attacks in Turkish territories since the summer of 2015 but had remained silent in their aftermath. But now it had made its position toward Turkey very clear: “The blood of Muslims spilled by the warplanes and canons of the apostate Turkish government,” its statement read, “will burn a fire in its own homeland.”
In fact, IS had made that message clear a week before the Reina attack as well, by releasing a video showing two Turkish soldiers being burned alive. The soldiers were most likely captured during the bloody battles in recent weeks between IS and the Turkish military around the Syrian town of al-Bab.
The horrific execution were expected to have sent shockwaves throughout Turkey. But thanks to the government’s censorship skills — which included gag orders on the media and total blockage on social media — Turkey avoided discussion of this shocking news. The Reina attack, however, could not be avoided.
In the aftermath of the nightclub bloodshed, Turkey’s deputy prime minister, Numan Kurtulmus, said authorities were monitoring hundreds of “provocative” social media accounts that allegedly support terrorism and foster divisiveness in society.
Turkey has prosecuted several people, including prominent government critics such as journalist Ahmet Sik, for allegedly spreading terrorist propaganda through social media.