Report: Istanbul bomber followed Israeli group
Turkish TV station claims security footage shows terrorist waiting for Israelis to leave hotel before approaching them and detonating explosives.
Mehmet Ozturk, the suicide bomber who killed three Israelis in Istanbul, followed a group of Israeli tourists from their hotel before detonating, according to Turkish TV station HaberTurk. The report was not officially confirmed.
The station claimed its report was based on analysis of security footage, which allegedly showed the ISIS terrorist waiting outside the restaurant in which the Israelis ate breakfast. When they left, he approached them and detonated the explosives.
Security camera still shows moment after the detonation
Turkish authorities said on Sunday that DNA confirmed that Ozturk was the terrorist. Ozturk, a Turkish national, was born in 1992 in the city of Gaziantep in southeastern Turkey, a province which borders Syria.
Ozturk's family reported him missing after he went to Istanbul in 2013, security sources said.
Turkey has endured six suicide bombing attacks in less than a year. The country faces a wide array of security threats including from ultra-left radicals, Kurdish rebels demanding greater autonomy who currently are locked in battle with security forces in the southeast, as well as the Islamic State group.
