ISIS are confirmed as masterminds behind latest Istanbul blast

A Turkish ISIS recruit carried out the suicide bombing that killed four foreigners on a major shopping artery in Istanbul, it has been revealed.

Mehmet Ozturk, 24, was named by Turkey’s Interior Minister Efken Ala earlier today.

‘The attacker has been formally identified. He is linked to the terrorist organisation Daesh,’ Ala told a press conference, using an alternative name for ISIS.

Ala said five people had been arrested on suspicion of links to Saturday’s attack on Istiklal Caddesi, a bustling pedestrian street in the heart of the city.

Born in 1992, Ozturk came from Gaziantep, a city in southeast Turkey on the border with Syria, the interior minister said.

DNA samples were reportedly taken from his brother and his father, who works as a factory worker in the southeastern city to compare with fragments taken from the bomber’s headless body.

He was ‘not on our list of wanted persons,’ Ala said, defending the authorities against accusations of security failings following six major attacks around the country since July that have killed over 200 people.

Five people died in the attack including three Israeli people and one Iranian.

The bodies of three of the victims were being flown back to Israel today.

Military personnel accompanied the coffins, draped in flags bearing the Star of David, aboard an aircraft at Ataturk Airport in Istanbul.

A video of the horror emerged after officials confirmed five people died in Saturday morning’s suicide attack.

Source: Daily Mail