Turkey detains three Russians after Istanbul suicide attack

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Turkey detains three Russians after Istanbul suicide attack

7:18 CAT | 13 Jan 2016

Reuters / A Turkish police officer stands guard as Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and German Interior Minister Thomas De Maiziere visit people wounded in a suicide attack at Sultanahmet Square in Istanbul, Turkey, Jan. 13, 2016.

Turkish police have detained three Russian nationals suspected of links with Islamic State following a suicide bomb attack in Istanbul that killed at least 10 tourists, according to the Doğan news agency.

Police in the Mediterranean city of Antalya also seized documents and CDs during a search of where the suspects were staying, the agency said. It was not immediately clear when the detentions occurred.

Russia’s consulate confirmed that three citizens had been detained.

The move came after 65 people were detained on Tuesday in raids in Ankara, Izmir, the Syrian border town of Kilis, Sanliurfa, Mersin on the Mediterranean, and the southern city of Adana, the Anatolia news agency said.

In the capital Ankara, authorities detained 16 people suspected of planning a major attack, the report said. The 21 people held in Sanliurfa were also planning an attack at an unspecified location in Turkey, it added.

Germany’s foreign ministry said 10 Germans died in Tuesday’s attack, raising the death toll from nine. Seven Germans are still recovering from their injuries, five of them in intensive care, spokeswoman Sawsan Chebli said.

It was not immediately clear whether the total toll cited by Turkish authorities remained at 10.

The country’s interior minister Thomas de Maizière insisted there were no indications so far that Germans had been specifically targeted. On a visit to Istanbul on Wednesday, he said: “According to the investigations so far, there are no indications that the attack was directed specifically against Germans, and so there can’t be a connection to our contribution to the fight against international terrorism.”

Top German and Turkish officials were already scheduled to meet in Berlin next week to discuss Europe’s migration crisis. De Maizière said those talks will now also address “the determined fight against terrorism”.

Source: The Guardian