Isis group claims responsibility for Istanbul nightclub attack

(The Guardian)- Turkish authorities suspect Islamic State is behind the attack on a popular Istanbul nightclub during new year’s celebrations, Turkish media reports say.

Meanwhile local reports said an Isis-affiliated group had claimed responsibility for the attack.

Authorities also believe that the gunman, who killed 39 people, most of them foreigners, comes from a central Asian nation, likely to be either Uzbekistan or Kyrgyzstan, the pro-government Karar and the mainstream Hürriyet newspapers reported, citing unnamed security sources.

Police had established similarities with the suicide bomb and gun attack at Istanbul’s Ataturk airport in June and were investigating whether the same Isis cell could have carried out both attacks, the papers reported.

The gunman, still at large, killed a police officer and another man outside the Reina club in the early hours of 2017 before entering and firing with an automatic rifle at an estimated 600 people inside.

Nearly two-thirds of the dead in the upmarket club, which is frequented by local celebrities, were foreigners, Turkey’s Anadolu Agency said. Many of them were from the Middle East.

The mass shooting followed more than 30 violent acts over the past year in Turkey, which is a member of the Nato alliance and a partner in the US-led coalition fighting against the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq. The country endured multiple bombings in 2016, including three in Istanbul alone 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 Istanbul’s famous Istiklal Street as well as the attack at Ataturk airport in June, which killed 45 people.

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.

The prime minister Binali Yildirim said the attacker left a gun at the club and escaped by “taking advantage of the chaos” that ensued. Some customers reportedly jumped into the waters of the Bosphorus to escape the attack.