An Uzbek gunman who killed 39 people in Istanbul's Reina nightclub on New Year's Day told police he had changed his target at the last minute to avoid heavy security and acted on orders from Islamic State jihadist in Syria, Turkish media reported on Wednesday.
Turkish authorities on Monday detained Abdulgadir Masharipov, 34, who spent 17 days on the run following the attack which was claimed by the extremist group. They also arrested an Iraqi man and three women from Egypt, Senegal, and Somalia.
Using the code name Ebu Muhammed Horasani, the man told police he entered Turkey through Iran in January 2016 and moved to the central city of Konya.
"When I was in Konya, an order came from (the Syrian city of) Raqa for me to carry out an attack in Taksim" Square in İstanbul, he said in testimony to Turkish police. Raqa is the self-declared capital of IS in Syria. I arrived at Taksim on New Year's Eve but there were very intensive (security) measures. It was not possible to carry out an attack. I re-established contact with the person who gave me the order and we agreed that Taksim was not suitable for an attack. I was given instructions to search for a new target in the area. I toured the (Bosphorus) shore at around 10 p.m. in a cab. Reina looked suitable for the attack. There didn't seem to be many security measures," he said.
On Wednesday Turkish police raided six locations in the western province of Bursa in connection with the nightclub attack and detained 27 suspected Islamic State members, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
The detainees included 15 women and Uzbek, Kyrgyz and Tajik nationals. Police also seized fake IDs and passports in the raids, Anadolu said.
