Turkey detains 3 Russians after deadly bombing in Istanbul

On Wednesday, German Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Sawsan Chebli said the number had risen to 10.

German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere left, listens to his Turkish counterpart Efkan Ala, right, during a joint news conference in Istanbul, Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2016.

As investigators tried to figure out how Mr. Fadli got the explosives used in the attack, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu castigated Islamic State as a “pawn” and a “subcontractor” for “other players acting behind the scenes”.

Pope Francis has invited the faithful to pray for the victims of a suicide bombing in Istanbul that killed 10 foreigners, mostly German tourists.

Mr Davutoglu and Mr de Maiziere placed red roses by the Obelisk, which appeared to be undamaged. Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that “Turkey is the primary target for all terrorist organizations active in the region”, and stressed that the country will continue to fight terrorism “until the very end.” .

Investigations conducted into the terrorist attack by Turkish authorities reveal that the suicide bomber was a man who entered Turkey through Syria recently, the place of his upbringing, and he was registered at the immigration department, though as he was not suspected by authorities to be a member of any proscribed group he was not under watch.

The Haberturk newspaper published what it said was a CCTV image of the bomber, named in some local media as Saudi-born Nabil Fadli, at an Istanbul immigration office on January 5.

It said he was identified by a sample of a finger taken from the blast site.

Asked whether Turkey planned air strikes against Islamic State in response to the bombing, Davutoglu said Turkey would act at a time and in a manner that it saw fit.

On Wednesday, three more suspected IS members were detained in the southern resort city of Antalya.

Turkey has been on high alert after a series of attacks blamed on the Islamic State jihadist group, including a double suicide bombing in October in Ankara that killed more than 100 people.

Turkey has faced a series of deadly attacks.

Stating that around 12 million tourists visit the city per year, Davutoglu said every type of measure against terror would be taken to make the city even safer.

A Kurdish splinter group, the Freedom Falcons of Kurdistan (TAK), claimed a mortar attack on Istanbul’s second global airport on December 23 that killed a female cleaner and damaged several planes.

The government also urged people who want to travel to Turkey to consider the security situation.

Eleven people were still being treated for injuries sustained in the blast, including nine Germans, a Norwegian and a Peruvian national, officials said. The current political struggle between both countries will have serious implications for the Turkish tourist sector, as 15.6 % of all tourists visiting Turkey in 2014 came from Russian Federation.

As if to underscore the point, Turkey detained 68 terror suspects in sweeps across seven provinces, Anadolu reported Wednesday.

The dead include two couples, one in their seventies, and the other aged 59 and 61.

It was not clear if the attacker had specifically targeted Germans.