AS IT HAPPENED: ISIL suicide attack kills 10, injures 15 in Istanbul's Sultanahmet
ISTANBUL - Doğan News Agency
AP photo
An explosion occurred on Jan. 12 in Istanbul’s touristic Sultanahmet Square, killing 10 while wounding at least 15, Istanbul governor's office has said.
According to reports by private broadcaster CNN Türk, the explosion occurred by the obelisk of Theodosius in the touristic Sultanahmet Square in Istanbul’s Fatih district.
According to Istanbul's governor's office, 10 people have been killed in the explosion while at least 15 people have been reported wounded.
5:00 p.m. The suicide bomber recently entered Turkey from Syria, Deputy PM Numan Kurtulmuş has told reporters.
4:55 p.m. Turkish PM says all victims killed in the Sultanahmet suicide attack are foreigners while the suicide bomber is an Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militant.
4:35 p.m. The suicide bomber who committed the attack in Istanbul’s Sultanahmet Square has been identified as Saudi-born Nabil Fadli. Investigations continue to reveal the militant’s connections, Doğan News Agency has reported.
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmuş had announced at a press conference that the suicide bomber was a man of Syrian origin born in 1988.
4:00 p.m. The Council of Europe’s parliamentary assembly president Anne Brasseur has “strongly condemned” the attack in Istanbul while expressing her support for Turkey and condolences to the Turkish people.
“Turkey can count on our support in combating terrorism and violent extremism. It is the duty of all democratic political forces to stand up against radicalisation and the hatred that fuel violent extremism and terrorism,” Brasseur’s statement said.
“We unequivocally condemn the abhorrent terrorist suicide attack that took place this morning in Istanbul,” the statement said, adding that Greece stands in solidarity with the Turkish people.
Davutoğlu has reportedly told Merkel that an investigation is being carried out delicately and that all necessary information will be shared with German authorities.
3:20 p.m. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has strongly condemned the terrorist attack in Istanbul and extended his condolences to the families of the victims.
“My thoughts are with those injured, with the Turkish people, and with all the other nations affected,” he said.
“There can be no justification for such attacks. All NATO allies stand united in the fight against all forms of terrorism,” Stoltenberg added.
3:00 p.m. Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was very worried that German citizens might be among the victims and the wounded, Reuters has reported.
"International terrorism has shown its ugly face," said Merkel. "We need to act decisively against it."
Meanwhile, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said that German citizens may have died in an attack in Istanbul, and that Germans were almost certainly among the injured.
"By now we have to assume that also Germans have been injured in this terror attack," Steinmeier said at a news conference in Berlin. "We also can't exclude that Germans are among the dead."
Meanwhile, Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni has reportedly called Turkish FM Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu to extend his condolences.
“Italy and Turkey are more determined than ever to combat terrorism,” Gentiloni was quoted as saying in a statement by the Italian Foreign Ministry.