ISTANBUL—Turkey’s interior minister on Sunday identified the suicide bomber who killed himself and four foreign tourists in Istanbul as a militant with links to the Islamic State (ISIS).
Minister Efkan Ala said the bomber was Turkish citizen Mehmet Ozturk, who was born in 1992 in Gaziantep province, which borders Syria. He said Ozturk was not on any list of wanted suspects and five other people were detained as part of the investigation.
Saturday’s explosion killed five people, including Ozturk, and wounded dozens of others. Among the fatalities were two American-Israelis, another Israeli and an Iranian. The attack targeted Istanbul’s pedestrian Istiklal Street, which is lined with shops and cafes in an area that also has government offices and foreign missions.
