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'Devotees of Death' headed for Turkey

Turkey offers the ideal destination for foreign terrorist fighters to blend in after being forced out of Syria and Iraq.
Relatives react at the funeral of Ayhan Arik, a victim of an attack by a gunman at Reina nightclub, in Istanbul, Turkey, January 1, 2017.    REUTERS/Osman Orsal TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY - RTX2X4WI

The Reina nightclub attack in Istanbul in the first hours of the new year led to a flurry of speculation on the identity of the attacker, who managed to escape and is still on the run.

The alleged attacker, who killed 39 people and wounded 68, initially was identified as a Uighur Turk and then as Kirghiz. The latest reports from security sources, however, identified him as an Uzbek national of Tajik origin named Abdulkadir Masharipov who uses the Islamic State (IS) alias Abu Mohammed Khorasani.

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