Emergency services inspecting the area following a suicide bombing in central Istanbul, Turkey, March 19, 2016.
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Turkey’s interior minister on Sunday identified the suicide bomber who killed himself and four foreign tourists in Istanbul as a militant with links to ISIS. Five others had been detained in relation to the attack, he said.
Saturday’s attack on Istiklal Street, Istanbul’s most popular shopping district, appeared similar to a January suicide bombing blamed on IS that killed 12 German tourists.
Israel has confirmed that three of its citizens died in the blast, two of them held dual citizenship with the United States.
The main opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet said the latest strike was proof of the government’s “incompetence” in its handling of the security crisis. Ozturk was reportedly identified by DNA found at the scene of the bombing.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nachshon said that Israelis were among those hurt.
He was “not on our wanted list”, Ala said, defending the authorities against accusations of repeated security failings following six major attacks since July that have killed over 200 people.
Speaking at his weekly Cabinet meeting, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “Terror wreaks death and destruction around the world…”
In addition to the fatalities, 36 people were injured in the blast, Turkish Health Minister Mehmet Muezzinoglu said.
There has not been an immediate claim of responsibility but suspicion fell on the Islamic State group and on Kurdish militants who have claimed responsibility for the last two attacks in Ankara.
The explosion on Saturday killed five people, including the suicide bomber, and injured 39 others.
An official from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AKP Party tweeted that she “wished the Israelis” who were said to be wounded in Saturday’s Istanbul suicide blast were dead. As part of a U.S.-led coalition, it is fighting Daesh in neighbouring Syria and Iraq.
Eleven Israelis were hurt in the bombing on Istiklal Caddesi, a bustling two-kilometer-long pedestrian street usually thronged with shoppers, tourists and buskers.
The advice was upgraded from a level four warning of potential attacks to a level two warning of concrete attacks.
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The attack came has Turkey had heightened security across the country in the run-up to the Kurdish spring festival of Newroz on March 21, which Kurds in Turkey traditionally use to assert their ethnic identity and demand greater rights. The Dogan news agency says the attack is believed to be a suicide bombing and injured at least five people.
