Eight arrested in Istanbul as Isil claims New Year’s attack on nightclub

From the Telegraph

Turkey’s state-run news agency says police have detained eight people in connection with the Istanbul nightclub attack.

Anadolu Agency says that the eight have been taken into custody by Istanbul anti-terrorism squads and they are being questioned at Istanbul’s main police headquarters. The gunman, who escaped after carrying out the attack, wasn’t among the eight.

It comes as Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isil) claimed responsibility for the New Year’s attack at a popular Istanbul nightclub that killed 39 people and wounded scores of others.

The Isil-linked Aamaq News Agency said the attack was carried by a “heroic soldier of the caliphate who attacked the most famous nightclub where Christians were celebrating their pagan feast.” It said the man opened fire from an automatic rifle in “revenge for God’s religion and in response to the orders” of IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The group described Turkey as “the servant of the cross.”

Earlier, Turkish media reports had said that Turkish authorities believed Isil was behind the attack and that the gunman, who is still at large, comes from a Central Asian nation and is likely to be either from Uzbekistan or Kyrgyzstan.

According to Hurriyet and Karar newspapers, police had also established similarities with the high-casualty suicide bomb and gun attack at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport in June and was investigating whether the same Isil cell could have carried out both attacks.

Some witnesses claimed the attackers were “speaking Arabic”, according to Dogan news agency.