Turkey Says It Has Identified Gunman in Istanbul Nightclub Attack
Source: NYT
ISTANBUL — The Turkish authorities said on Wednesday that they had identified the fugitive gunman who went on a deadly rampage at an upscale Istanbul nightclub in the early hours of New Year’s Day, although they did not release his name.
“The identity of the person responsible for the Istanbul attack has been established,” the Turkish foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, told the state-run news agency Anadolu, which also reported that the police had detained 20 people, believed to be Islamic State militants, in connection with the assault.
Some of those who were arrested, in the western Turkish province of Izmir, are thought to have lived with the attacker in the central city of Konya, Anadolu reported, adding that night vision equipment, a sniper scope, an ammunition belt and other military equipment had been found during police raids.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in his first public remarks since the attack, told an audience in Ankara, the capital, that the assault that left 39 people dead was a failed attempt to divide the Turkish people and to harm the country’s economy.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/04/world/europe/istanbul-attack-nightclub.html
