The number of people who have been detained in connection to an attack on a nightclub in İstanbul in the early hours of New Year’s Day has risen to 14 with new detentions on Tuesday.
Interrogation of the detainees was continuing at the İstanbul Police Department, media reports said on Tuesday.
The terrorist Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) claimed responsibility for the attack that killed at least 39 people and wounded 69 others.
“In continuation of the blessed operations that Islamic State is conducting against the protector of the cross, Turkey, a heroic soldier of the caliphate struck one of the most famous nightclubs where the Christians celebrate their apostate holiday,” the ISIL statement said as reported by Reuters on Monday.
Thirty-five victims of the massacre carried out by a lone gunman in the early hours of Sunday have been identified, with 24 of them being foreign nationals and 11 Turkish citizens.
At slightly after 1 a.m. on New Year’s Day, a man wielding a Kalashnikov rifle killed a policeman and a civilian outside the entrance to the popular Reina nightclub and blazed his way into the club, randomly shooting at some of the hundreds of revelers bringing in the new year.
Of the 25 male and 14 female victims of the slaughter, seven were Saudi Arabian, two Indian, one from Canada, one from Syria, one from Israel, two Tunisians, four Iraqis, one Lebanese and one from Belgium. Eleven were Turkish citizens.
The Institute of Forensic Medicine (ATK) is working to identify the remaining four foreigners killed in the rampage.