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Turkey hits Isis targets in Syria as group claims nightclub attack | |
(35 minutes later) | |
The Turkish military has said it has carried out raids against Islamic State in Syria, after the militant group claimed responsibility for a gun attack on an Istanbul nightclub that killed 39 people on New Year’s Eve. | |
Citing the Turkish chief of general staff’s office, the state-run Anadolu news agency said Turkish jets had struck eight Isis targets in Syria, and tanks and artillery had fired on 103 targets near al-Bab, killing 22 fighters. | |
The gunman who opened fire on the dancefloor of the Reina nightclub in Turkey’s largest city on Saturday night, killing partygoers from 12 different countries, is still at large and believed to be from Uzbekistan or Kyrgyzstan. | |
The man killed a police officer and another person to enter the club, and reportedly fired 180 bullets during the seven-minute attack. In addition to the dead, 69 people were injured. | |
An Isis statement said the gunman had “struck one of the most famous nightclubs where the Christians celebrate their apostate holiday” and described Turkey as a “protector of the cross”. | |
Turkish media reports said police had established similarities with a suicide bomb and gun attack at Istanbul’s Atatürk airport in June and were investigating whether the same Isis cell could have carried out both atrocities. | |
Turkey’s interior ministry said on Monday that 147 people had been detained in the past week over suspected ties to Isis and 25 had been put under formal arrest. | |
Witnesses to the nightclub attack described scenes of chaos as revellers attempted to flee. Some threw themselves into the waters of the Bosphorus to escape the gunfire. | |
Nearly two-thirds of the dead at the upmarket club, which is frequented by local celebrities, were foreigners. Anadolu, citing unidentified Turkish justice ministry officials, said 38 of the 39 had been identified. | |
It said 11 of those killed were Turkish nationals and one was a Turkish-Belgium dual citizen. Seven victims were from Saudi Arabia; there were three each from Lebanon and Iraq; two each from Tunisia, India, Morocco and Jordan, and one each from Kuwait, Canada, Israel, Syria and Russia. | |
The German foreign ministry said on Monday that two residents of Bavaria, one a Turkish national and one a dual Turkish-German citizen, had died in the attack. | |
It remains unclear how the attacker managed to escape from the club, which is just across the street from a police station. One report suggested he had abandoned his weapon and mingled with the crowd outside, pretending to be an injured civilian. | It remains unclear how the attacker managed to escape from the club, which is just across the street from a police station. One report suggested he had abandoned his weapon and mingled with the crowd outside, pretending to be an injured civilian. |
The prime minister, Binali Yıldırım, said the attacker left a gun at the scene and escaped by “taking advantage of the chaos”. | |
There were more than 30 violent acts last year in Turkey, which is a Nato member and a partner in the US-led coalition fighting Isis in Syria and Iraq. There were a number of bombings, including three in Istanbul that authorities blamed on Isis, a failed coup attempt in July and renewed conflict with Kurdish rebels in the south-east. | |
Isis claims to have cells in the country. Analysts think it was behind suicide bombings last January and March that targeted tourists on İstiklal Street in Istanbul and the attack at Atatürk airport in June, in which 45 people died. | |
In December, Isis released a video purportedly showing the killing of two Turkish soldiers and urged its supporters to “conquer” Istanbul. Turkey’s jets regularly bomb the group in the northern Syrian town of al-Bab. Turkish authorities have not confirmed the authenticity of the video. |