Turkish media reports say Kurdish rebels have exploded a auto bomb at a police station then attacked it with rocket launchers and firearms, injuring 39 people, including civilians.
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One of the Russians arrested in Turkey was Aidar Suleimanov, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday. The suspects were not identified.
Turkish authorities identified the bomber as a Syrian born in 1988, who had recently entered Turkey. Ala said the bomber wasn’t on any Turkish or worldwide watch lists for IS militants.
It is also reported that Fadly arrived in Turkey on January 5, 2016 from Syria, pretending to be a refugee.
Another police station was also attacked with rocket launchers in Midyat town, in the province of Mardin, in what appeared to be a simultaneous assault. Six of the victims remained hospitalized on Wednesday.
It was hit by two major bombings a year ago blamed on the group, in the town of Suruc near the Syrian border and in the capital Ankara, the latter killing more than 100 people in the worst attack of its kind on Turkish soil. “It is a person who entered normally, as a refugee, as an asylum-seeker”.
The Soufan security firm said in an analysis Wednesday that IS was not short on volunteers for suicide missions and the migrant crisis was posing a security challenge for Europe. The Islamic State group, however, hasn’t claimed responsibility for the attack.
Twelve people were killed in the suicide attack in the Centre of Istanbul, before the Blue Mosque on Tuesday, including 10 Germans. All three are Russian citizens, according to authorities.
Turkey has faced criticism at home and overseas for failing to do more to fight Islamic State networks, but Ala, the interior minister, defended Turkey’s record, saying 200 suspects had been detained just a week before the Istanbul blast.
Almost 3,000 Russians, mostly from the predominantly Muslim North Caucasus, are believed to have gone to fight alongside Islamic State militants in Syria. Families of IS recruits and human rights activists in the Caucasus have described Turkey as the main gateway to Syria for Russian fighters. Some Islamic State fighters of Russian origin are believed to have left the Islamic State to settle in Turkey, families say.
One suspect was netted on Tuesday, hours after the attack. The university said the number of those who considered the United States, Syria and Israel to pose a threat to Turkey fell in 2015, though it did not give percentage figures.
Three other suspected ISIS members were arrested on Wednesday in the southern resort city of Antalya. Even though Turkey is formally part of the US-led coalition against IS, it has been subjected to numerous accusations that the regime in charge of the country has been guilty of turning a blind eye to the activities of IS inside Turkey, allowing safe passage for IS militant goings in and out of Syria. He said Germany stood resolutely by Turkey’s side in the fight against terrorism.
“[The] German Interior Minister has conveyed this morning to his Turkish counterpart our request to receive as much as possible information on the concrete findings of the investigation”. It also sent a tanker aircraft, as well as a frigate to help protect a French aircraft carrier in the eastern Mediterranean.
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Germany already was helping supply and train Kurdish forces fighting IS in northern Iraq but has not taken a direct combat role. The nationalities of the two others killed in the blast weren’t immediately released, but both were foreigners.
