Page 10 - ARUBA TODAY

A10 WORLD NEWS
Tuesday 3 January 2017
IS claims responsibility for New Year’s nightclub attack

LORI HINNANT
DUSAN STOJANOVIC
Associated Press
ISTANBUL (AP) — The Is-
lamic State group claimed
responsibility Monday for a
mass shooting at an Istan-
bul nightclub that killed 39
people, most of them for-
eign tourists from Muslim
countries who were ring-
ing in the new year. It was
the first claim of its kind for
IS in Turkey. The group said
Christian revelers were
targeted in response to
Turkish military operations
against IS in northern Syria.
The claim came after an IS
propaganda video urging
attacks on Turkey, which is
home to an airbase used in
the U.S.-led effort against IS
in Syria and Iraq.
Turkish authorities never
confirmed the authenticity
of the Dec. 22 video that
purported to show Turkish
soldiers who were burned
alive, but access to social
media was temporarily re-
stricted in what appeared Mourners carry the Turkish flag-draped coffin of Yunus Gormek, 23, one of the victims of the attack at a nightclub on New Year’s
to be an effort to curb its Day, during the funeral in Istanbul, Monday, Jan. 2, 2017.
circulation. Associated Press
The nightclub assailant,
armed with a long-bar- the attacker was a “sol- reflected events in Syria. gains of Kurdish fighters. In In its claim, IS said the night-
reled weapon, killed a dier of the caliphate” who The first dramatic attack October, Turkish-backed club attack was aimed at
policeman and a civilian struck to “let infidel Turkey came July 2015, when a Syrian forces took the sym- Christians celebrating a
early Sunday outside the know that the blood of suicide bomber hit a rally bolically important town pagan holiday, suggesting
Reina club before enter- Muslims that is being shed of activists in the border of Dabiq, which is central a symbolic choice of tar-
ing and firing at some of by its airstrikes and artillery town of Suruc, at a time to IS propaganda. Turkish get that can be justified to
the estimated 600 people shelling will turn into fire on when Kurdish fighters in jets regularly bomb IS in the radical Sunni Muslim sup-
inside. The establishment is its territories.” Early Turkish Syria where under siege then town of Al-Bab, and porters as punishment of
frequented by famous lo- media reports suggested just across the border in Ankara wants to play a role sinners. But in reality, many
cals, including singers, ac- the Istanbul nightclub gun- Kobane. The worst IS-linked in dislodging IS from its bas- of the victims hailed from
tors and athletes. man was probably from attack to rock Turkey came tion in Raqqa. majority-Muslim nations in
The Islamic State group either Uzbekistan or Kyrgyz- just months after, in Octo- “Islamic State is sending a the Middle East.
boasts of having cells in stan and may have been ber 2015, when twin suicide strong message to the Turk- Max Abrahms, a North-
Turkey, regularly issues pro- part of the same cell that bombings killed 102 people ish government that it will eastern University politi-
paganda in Turkish and is staged the airport attack. at a peace rally in the cap- pay in blood for the offen- cal scientist, said IS under-
believed to have hundreds Authorities obtained the ital, Ankara. sive in northern Syria,” An- stands that civilian attacks
of Turks in its ranks. But until fingerprints and a basic In 2016, IS was blamed by thony Skinner, an analyst can be counterproductive
now, the main act of ag- description of the gunman analysts and Turkish author- with the Verisk Maplecroft in countries where it has
gression it had claimed in and are close to identifying ities for a wider range of security firm, wrote in an abundant support and
Turkey was the March 2016 him, Turkish Deputy Prime attacks, including the June email to The Associated has avoided conflict with
killing of a Syrian journal- Minister Numan Kurtulmus attack on Istanbul Ataturk Press. Many analysts also authorities in Turkey and
ist and an attack on riot said Monday after a weekly Airport that killed 45 peo- see IS latest attack on Tur- Saudi Arabia. To him, the
police in the province of cabinet meeting. He con- ple and two other deadly key as a sign of growing change of tact in Turkey
Diyarbakir, which Kurdish firmed eight people have bombings against tourists desperation. reflects that IS is “desper-
militants also claimed. been detained in connec- in Istanbul. IS was also sus- The group has been threat- ate” in the wake of losses
For some analysts, the tion to the attack. pected of directing an at- ened in al-Bab, Raqqa and in Syria and Iraq.
claim of responsibility sig- By attacking as the na- tack by a suicide bomber Mosul in Iraq and “needs to “There’s no question that Is-
naled a shift in IS strategy tion was celebrating — possibly as young as 12 reassert itself,” said Horow- lamic State is suffering in an
in Turkey, a predominantly the new year, the group — that killed more than 50 itz, director at the intelli- irreversible way,” Abrahms
Muslim nation. indicated that it intends people at an outdoor wed- gence analysis firm Prime said. So the group “is keen
“It’s a new phase,” security to continue being a ding in the city of Gazian- Source. The aggression on to commit as many attacks
analyst Michael Horowitz “scourge” against Turkey in tep. A member of NATO, Turkey, he added, is in line as possible these days and
said. “What we saw before 2017, Kurtulmus said. Turkey launched an of- with the group’s practice is much more likely to claim
was an undeclared war, Initially, IS activity in Tur- fensive to northern Syria in of equating mass-casu- credit for them in order to
and now we’re entering key appeared designed August in a bid to clear a alty terrorism attacks with signal that it has continued
an open war.” to stoke tensions with the strategic border area of IS heavy bombings and air- capability to mount opera-
The IS claim said only that country’s ethnic Kurds and militants and contain the strikes on IS-held territories. tions around the world.”q