Media reports say that the Istanbul nightclub attacker has been identified as Kyrgyz national but he has denied involvement in the attack.
The Telegraph reports the gunman who massacred 39 people in an Istanbul nightclub reportedly brought his wife and children with him to Turkey to deflect attention as he prepared his assault.
Three days after the shooting at the Reina club in the early hours of New Year’s Day, Turkish authorities are still hunting for the killer and have yet to publicly identify him.
Sixteen people have reportedly been arrested so far in connection with the attack, including two foreigners who were detained at Istanbul’s airport, but the shooter himself remains on the loose.
Among those arrested is a woman identified as the gunman’s wife, who was taken into custody in the city of Konya along with two children.
The Haberturk newspaper said the killer had brought his family with him to avoid suspicion from Turkey’s security services. Young men travelling on their own are checked with more scrutiny than those travelling with families.
The woman told police that she did not know that her husband was a member of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which claimed credit for the massacre, according to Hurriyet. She apparently only learned of the attack after seeing news reports on television.
Turkish authorities believe the shooter had combat training and may have spent several years fighting with ISIL in Syria before leaving to carry out the attack in Istanbul.
Media reports said the killer and his family flew from Kyrgyzstan to Istanbul on November 20 and then drove to Ankara, the Turkish capital, and eventually arriving in Konya on November 22.
Turkish police have either been unable to identify the killer or decided against releasing his name to the public, prompting swirling speculation in the press and on the streets.
On Tuesday afternoon a passport photo emerged online belonging to a 28-year-old man from Kyrgyzstan who resembled the shooter.
The image was widely shared but the man in the passport photo, Iakhe Mashrapov, soon stepped forward to say that he had nothing to do with the attack and was in Kyrgyzstan when it happened.
He said he had travelled to Istanbul the next day for work and had been stopped by Turkish authorities but was released soon after when they realized he had no connection to the hunted man.
Two unidentified men, identified only as foreign citizens, were arrested at Istanbul’s Ataturk airport on Tuesday. Their bags and mobile phones were searched and they were taken to a police station in the city for questioning.
Independent reports the suspected killer is believed to still be at large. Police have released photos of the man they think carried out the deadly seven-minute-long rampage, and Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said on Monday that the authorities have records of the suspect's fingerprints.
