A Turkish jihadist with links to the Islamic State carried out the suicide bombing that killed four foreigners on a major shopping street in Istanbul, Interior Minister Efken Ala said Sunday. "The attacker has been formally identified. He is linked to the terrorist organisation Daesh," Ala told a press conference, using another name for IS.
Ala named the bomber as Mehmet Ozturk from Gaziantep, a south-eastern city on Turkey's border with Syria. Three Israelis and one Iranian were killed, and 39 people injured, when the bomber blew himself up Saturday on Istiklal Caddesi, a bustling pedestrian street and popular meeting spot in the heart of the city.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Most of those injured in the blast on the pavement, outside a local government building, were also foreigners.
By Sunday morning, 19 people were still being treated in hospital, eight of them in critical condition, the health ministry said. Ozturk, who was born in 1992, was identified by DNA traces found at the scene, Dogan news agency reported. He was "not on our wanted list," Ala said, defending the authorities against accusations of repeated security failings following six major attacks since July that have killed over 200 people.
Another alleged IS member, Savas Yildiz, had been initially named by Turkish media as the suspected bomber.
The minister said five people had been arrested on suspicion of links to the attack. Dogan reported that Ozturk's father and brother were among those held.
Israeli media said the three Israeli victims - Avraham Goldman, 69, Jonathan Shor, 40 and Simha Damari, 60 - were part of a group that was on a gastronomic tour of Turkey. Two of them also had US citizenship.
The bodies of the three Israelis were to be flown home Sunday for burial aboard an Israeli military jet, Israeli military sources said.
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