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Turkish raids target Islamic State as nation takes stock after Istanbul attack Istanbul attack signals Islamic State’s apparent pivot toward tourism sector
(about 3 hours later)
ISTANBUL — Turkish authorities struck back on multiple fronts Wednesday after a deadly suicide attack in Istanbul’s historic center, arresting suspects allegedly linked to the plot and launching widespread raids against possible Islamic State networks. ISTANBUL — For the past 35 years, Nuri Sahin has sold carpets in the historic center of Istanbul. He can’t remember a time when business was so bad and fears that it will only get worse.
Turkey’s prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, said four additional suspects were held in connection with Tuesday’s blast that killed 10 Germans in a tourist group. Just a smattering of tourists ventured to the plazas and cobbled streets near his shop on Wednesday, a day after a suicide bomber thought to be linked to the Islamic State killed at least 10 people after approaching a group of German tourists and detonating his vest. Meanwhile, Turkish authorities carried out raids across the country, arresting one person in connection with the attack, according to Turkish Interior Minister Efkan Ala.
Earlier, officials said a woman was taken into custody as part of the probe. But the Hurriyet newspaper reported she was released after questioning about her phone — which she had reported stolen and had been used to call the bomber. Terrorist attacks are nothing new for Turkey, but Tuesday’s bloodshed marked a possible pivot point: the Islamic State apparently turning its focus toward the tourism sector in a country that draws about 40 million visitors a year.
Meanwhile, security forced conducted operations against suspected Islamic State cells around the country, detaining more than a dozen people, officials said. The attack took place near three of Istanbul’s most famed tourist attractions: the Blue Mosque, the Ottoman-era Topkapi Palace and the Hagia Sophia, a former mosque and Christian basilica that’s now a museum.
The sweeps — including nearly 60 others arrested late Tuesday — did not appear directly linked to the blast just steps from the famed Blue Mosque. “The tourists will be scared for a year,” said Sahin, 47. “This is the first time we’ve had anything like this in the heart of our tourism area.”
But it reflected a possible tighter squeeze by Turkish security forces against the Islamic State, which has used Turkey has a transit point for recruits and supplies. [Turkey key to Islamic State’s underground economy]
As the investigation into Tuesday’s carnage widened, worries also were raised about potential blows to Turkey’s critical tourism industry after the dead and 15 others wounded — mostly Germans — fell near some of the city’s most iconic landmarks. His colleague, Suleyman Bala, 33, witnessed the blast as he sat near the Obelisk of Theodosius, an ancient Egyptian monolith. The square was relatively quiet, he said, with just two tour groups: one of Germans, another of South Koreans. When the blast went off, he dropped to the ground.
[Attack takes aim at tourist trade] “It was all around me, body parts, blood,” he said. “So many pieces of people and people running, people scared.”
In Istanbul, the plazas and cobblestone streets in the heart of one of the city’s main tourist zones were without their usual bustle Wednesday. Germany’s Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday that all 10 who died were German citizens. Previous reports had said a Peruvian was also killed.
Police and news crews outnumbered tourists in the Sultanahmet district, where the attacker — identified by Turkish authorities as a 28-year-old of Syrian origin — approached a German tour group and detonated his vest. Seventeen were injured, and 11 remain in the hospital. Turkish authorities have blamed the Islamic State for the attack, though the group has not asserted responsibility.
On Wednesday, a smattering of tourists milled around the square, some stopping to lay flowers beside the Obelisk of Theodosius, an ancient Egyptian monolith next to which the attacker struck. During a visit to Istanbul, Germany’s interior minister, Thomas de Maiziere, said there was no reason to think that the attack was directed specifically at Germans, who make up the largest group of visitors to the country.
[Stories to help you understand the Islamic State] The number of Russian tourists began to drop after Moscow advised its citizens not to visit amid worsening relations following Turkey’s downing of a Russian fighter jet in November.
Ala, the interior minister, said the bomber had registered and given fingerprints to immigration officers last week after arriving from Syria. But the man — identified by Turkish media as Saudi-born Nabil Fadli — was not on any militant watch list, Ala said. [NATO faces new Mideast crisis after downing of Russian jet by Turkey]
“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. With the bomb attack Tuesday, the Islamic State risks a harsher crackdown from Turkish authorities, who have been criticized for not doing enough to prevent the country from being used as a conduit for supplies and recruits. But the militants appear increasingly desperate to strike overseas as they lose territory in Iraq and Syria.
Terrorist attacks are nothing new for Turkey, but Tuesday’s bloodshed marked a possible pivot point: the Islamic State apparently turning its focus towards the tourism sector in a country that draws around 40 million holidaymakers a year. In a joint news conference with Maiziere, Ala said that a woman was detained late Tuesday in Istanbul in connection with the attack, but he gave no further details.
The attack took place in near three of Istanbul’s most famed tourist attractions – the Blue Mosque, the Ottoman-era Topkapi Palace and the Hagia Sophia, a former Christian basilica. It was one of a series of raids in the wake of the attack against suspected Islamic State cells.
With the bombing, the group risks a harsher crackdown from Turkish authorities, who have been criticized for not doing enough to prevent the country being used as a conduit for supplies and recruits. But the militants appear increasingly desperate to strike outside their strongholds as they lose territory in Iraq and Syria. In the Mediterranean city of Antalya, three Russians were detained for allegedly providing logistical support to the militant group, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported. Six other suspected militants were arrested in raids in the province of Izmir on the Aegean coast.
The bombing Tuesday took place just yards from the city’s Blue Mosque, whose nine domes and six minarets are one of the most recognizable features of the city’s skyline. The alleged bomber, a 28-year-old Syrian named Nabil Fadli, was not on any militant watch list but had registered and given fingerprints at an immigration office a week before the blast, Ala said. Quoting security sources, the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet Daily said that he had registered for asylum in Istanbul on Jan. 5 with four other men.
“It’s just very, very sad,” said Kate Burton, a 36-year-old Australian tourist, wiping away tears as she spoke. “You get to know the locals, you really feel for them.” The pan-Arab daily newspaper al-Hayat reported that the man was born in Saudi Arabia but left at age 8 with his family.
Burton and her husband said they would not be deterred visiting again. But others disagreed. The bombing took place just yards from the city’s Blue Mosque, whose nine domes and six minarets are one of the most recognizable features of the city’s skyline.
[How the fight against the Islamic State is redrawing the region’s map] “It’s just very, very sad,” said Kate Burton, a 36-year-old Australian tourist, wiping away tears as she and her husband went to buy flowers to lay at the scene of the blast. “You get to know the locals, you really feel for them.”
“Honestly if I’d known I wouldn’t have come,” said Yeung, a visitor from Canada who did not want her last name to be published and hadn’t heard about the attack before arriving in the square on Wednesday. “I can go anywhere, and you try to avoid these things.” She said they would not be deterred from visiting again. But Sahin had his doubts.
That's what those working in Turkey's tourism trade fear. “I’ve never seen it like this in my life,” he said, adding that business was already down 70 to 80 percent. “We are scared now that the third world war is coming.”
Directly and indirectly, tourism makes up about 12 percent of Turkey’s gross domestic product, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council, an international travel-industry organization, with the country welcoming about 40 million tourists a year.
The Islamic State and other militant factions have waged similar attacks targeting tourist sites in other countries, including an armed siege of Tunisia’s renowned Bardo Museum last March that claimed more than 20 lives, many European visitors.
"This is the first time we've had anything like this in the heart of our tourism area," said Nuri Sahin, a 47-year-old whose family runs a carpet shop near the attack site. "Business will go down, the tourists will be scared for a year at least."
The White House also condemned the “heinous attack,” which it said “struck Turks and foreign tourists alike.”
In a statement Tuesday, National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said that the United States stands with NATO-ally Turkey, a “valued member” of the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State, and pledges “our ongoing cooperation and support in the fight against terrorism” in the face of the Istanbul attack.
In the largest suicide attack in the country last year, around 100 people were killed a peace rally in the Turkish capital Ankara in October. In July, more than 30 people were killed at a bombing at a cultural centre in Suruc, in the country’s southeast. The government blamed the Islamic State for those explosions, but the militant group never asserted responsibility.
Brian Murphy in Washington contributed to this report.Brian Murphy in Washington contributed to this report.