Turkey blames Islamic State bomber for Istanbul attack

A Turkish member of the Islamic State was responsible for Saturday’s suicide bombing in Istanbul that killed five people and wounded more than 30 others, Turkey’s interior minister said.

Efkan Ala identified the bomber as a man born in the southern province of Gaziantep.

“We have determined that Mehmet Ozturk, born in 1992 in Gaziantep, has carried out the heinous attack on Saturday in Istanbul. It has been established that he is a member of Daesh,” Ala told a news conference broadcast live on television, using an Arabic acronym for Islamic State.

Israel has confirmed that three of its citizens died in the blast. Two of them held dual citizenship with the United States. An Iranian was also killed, Turkish officials have said.

Five arrests have been made in connection with the attack, the minister said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel is trying to determine whether its citizens were deliberately targeted. Eleven of the 36 wounded were Israelis.

ISIL has so far not claimed responsibility.

The bomb exploded at the centre of a very busy commercial and entertainment area adjacent to Taksim Square in central Istanbul. Footage from the scene showed police and emergency services cordoning off the street, which was completely clear of people.

Saturday's attack on Istiklal Street, Istanbul's most popular shopping district, appeared similar to a January suicide bombing blamed on Islamic State that killed at least 12 German tourists in the city's historic centre.

More than 80 people have now been killed in four suicide attacks so far this year in Turkey, a NATO member that faces multiple security threats.

The blast occurred as Turkey investigates a string of recent attacks, including a massive car bombing in the capital Ankara on March 13 that killed 37 people.

The Ankara bombing was claimed by the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), a splinter group of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)

As part of a U.S.-led coalition, Turkey is fighting Islamic State in neighboring Syria and Iraq. It is also battling Kurdish militants in its southeast, where a 2-1/2-year ceasefire collapsed last July, triggering the worst violence since the 1990s.

The spate of bombings has raised questions about Turkey's ability to protect itself from a spillover of both the Syria and Kurdish conflicts.