“Your assessment that his fingerprints were taken and there is a record of him is correct”.
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“He was not on the wanted individuals list”.
Germany has said there are no indications as yet that Tuesday’s suicide attacker in Istanbul deliberately targeted German citizens. Turkish media, including newspapers close to the government, identified the bomber as Nabil Fadli, and said he was born in Saudi Arabia.
It said he was identified by a sample of a finger taken from the blast site.
Turkey said the alleged bomber was a Syrian-born ISIS militant born in 1988.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, however Islamist, leftists and Kurdish militants, who are battling in south east Turkey, have all carried out attacks in the past.
Mixing among German tourists on Tuesday morning, not far from the celebrated Blue Mosque, the authorities said, was an Islamic State operative from Syria in his late 20s, wearing a vest of explosives and determined to kill as many people as possible.
Pope Francis has invited the faithful to pray for the victims of a suicide bombing in Istanbul that killed 10 foreigners, mostly German tourists.
“This incident is a bit different”.
“It was an attack against humanity”, he said.
Efkan Ala said during a news conference with his German counterpart that the suspect was detained late Tuesday.
“If the terrorists aimed to destroy or endanger the cooperation between partners, then they achieved the opposite”, de Maiziere said. Information released by regional authorities shows that the victims came from across Germany and included two couples.
Eight Germans were among the dead and nine others were wounded, some seriously, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told reporters in Berlin. He vowed to work closely with Germany in investigating the attack.
Germany sent a team of investigators to Istanbul on Wednesday from its Federal Criminal Police Office, which is comparable to the FBI, to support Turkish authorities investigating the attack. One suspect was detained after the attack.
Ahmet Davutoglu reiterated Wednesday that the attack was linked to the Islamic State group. Russia’s Consul General Alexander Tolstopyatenko confirmed that three Russian citizens had been detained in Antalya, adding that the reasons were being clarified.
Turkish media said police raided a home in an affluent Istanbul neighborhood, briefly detaining one woman suspected of links to the Islamic State group, although it wasn’t clear if she was the suspect Ala was referring to.
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During Wednesday’s detentions, Police also seized documents and CDs during a search of their building where the suspects were staying, Turkey’s Dogan News Agency said according to a translation by Reuters.
