Turkish authorities have captured the gunman who killed 39 people in an İstanbul nightclub on New Year's Day, an Uzbek national they said was trained in Afghanistan and had clearly acted on behalf of Islamic State.
The suspect, named by İstanbul Governor Vasip Şahin as Abdulgadir Masharipov, was caught in a police raid late on Monday in a hideout in an outlying Istanbul suburb after a two-week manhunt.
Masharipov, who was captured with four others, had admitted his guilt and his fingerprints matched those at the scene, Şahin told a news conference.
Şahin told reporters that "It is clear that this was carried out in the name of Daesh." He was using an Arabic acronym for the militant group. The jihadist group claimed responsibility a day after the mass shooting, saying it was revenge for Turkish military involvement in Syria.
"He knew four languages and was well-educated," Sahin said, adding he was born in 1983 in Uzbekistan and received training in Afghanistan. Şahin said that the gunman is believed to have entered Turkey in January 2016.
The suspect was married with two children, was a dual Uzbek-Tajik national and spoke Russian, Arabic, Chinese and Turkish, as well as Uzbek. He received two years training in Afghanistan and Pakistan and was believed to have entered Turkey via Iran.
Masharipov was captured with an Iraqi man and three women from Africa, one of them from Egypt, in the Esenyurt district on Istanbul's western outskirts, about 30 km (19 miles) from the Reina nightclub.
Two pistols, mobile phone SIM cards, two drones and $197,000 in cash were also seized, Şahin said.
