ISTANBUL -- The man accused by Turkish authorities of carrying out the New Year's nightclub attack in Istanbul has confessed and his fingerprints match those of the gunman, a provincial governor said Tuesday. Authorities identified the suspect as an Uzbek national who trained in Afghanistan and staged the attack for the Islamic State extremist group.
The gunman shot a policeman and a civilian outside the Reina nightclub before entering the building and unleashing a hail of bullets on hundreds of people gathered to celebrate the end of 2016.
Thirty-nine people were killed and dozens of others were wounded.
Authorities say the suspect switched clothes during the attack and fled the scene by blending into the crowd of survivors. It took weeks for police to capture the suspect; authorities said he collected his son in a working-class neighborhood of Istanbul before hiding out in an apartment in a low-income district.
Photographs widely published in the Turkish media showed a bruised, black-haired man in a gray, bloodied shirt. NTV television said the man had resisted arrest.
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim announced Tuesday that "the vile terrorist" who attacked the nightclub had been captured. Speaking to reporters in the capital, Ankara, he said the "forces behind [the attack] would be revealed in time."
Moments later, in separate remarks, Istanbul provincial Gov. Vasip Sahin gave a full portrait of the suspected killer and the efforts that went into securing his capture.
Sahin named the man as Abdulkadir Masharipov, an Uzbek national who was born in 1983 and also operated under the alias Ebu Muhammed Horasani. Turkish media have reported the suspect's first name as Abdulgadir.
Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency said Masharipov traveled to Afghanistan from his home country six years ago and that he was on a wanted list in Uzbekistan for membership in a terror group.
The suspect, the governor said, had trained in Afghanistan and was believed to have entered Turkey in January 2016. Sahin described Masharipov as a highly educated terrorist who speaks four languages.
Masharipov, who was taken into custody late Monday, confessed to carrying out the massacre, and his fingerprints matched those of the attacker, Sahin said.
He can be held for up to 30 days under Turkey's state of emergency, which was introduced after a failed coup attempt in July, before he is charged and formally arrested.
The police operation to apprehend Masharipov drew on a review of 7,200 hours of security camera footage and about 2,200 tips from the public. Police searched 152 addresses, and 50 people were taken into custody.
Authorities said they seized nearly $200,000, two guns and two drones during the suspect's arrest.
"Together with the terrorist, an Iraqi man was detained as well as three women from various countries -- from Egypt and from Africa," Sahin said. "There is a high chance that they may be connected [to the Islamic State] because they were staying in the same house."
The governor said it was believed that they arrived three days earlier at Esenyurt, a low-income neighborhood of Istanbul.
Neighbors of Masharipov said they were in shock after finding their building at the heart of a large-scale police operation. Ali Haydar Demir said he left his apartment when he heard the commotion only to be turned back by police officers who told him to close his door.
Demir, who lived on the same floor of the Istanbul complex as Masharipov, said he felt "very bad living in the same building with a person like that."
Another resident, Sezer Aras, described the situation as a nightmare. He said Masharipov "was very close to us, but we had no idea."
The Anadolu agency said Masharipov's 4-year-old son was taken into protective custody.
The Hurriyet newspaper earlier reported that the suspect's wife and 1-year-old daughter were caught in a police operation in the neighborhood of Zeytinburnu on Jan. 12.
In another report citing police officials, the newspaper said Masharipov had picked up his son from Zeytinburnu after attacking the nightclub.
Sahin said the boy wasn't with Masharipov on the night of the police operation but that he had taken the child with him and left his daughter with his wife.
Turkish media also circulated a photograph of the Iraqi suspect lying on the floor face-down, hands bound behind his back, with the boot of an unidentified man pressed to the back of his head.
The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the nightclub massacre, saying the attack in the first hours of Jan. 1 was in reprisal for Turkish military operations in northern Syria.
Turkey, a member of NATO and a partner in the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State, has endured multiple attacks attributed to the extremist group.
Information for this article was contributed by Suzan Fraser, Burhan Ozbilic, Lefteris Pitarakis, Ayse Wieting and Dominique Soguel of The Associated Press.
A Section on 01/18/2017