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		</div><p>The suicide bomber who killed himself and four foreign tourists in Istanbul has been identified as a militant with links to the Islamic State group.</p>
<p>Turkey’s interior minister Efkan Ala said the bomber was Turkish citizen Mehmet Ozturk, who was born in 1992 in Gaziantep province, which borders Syria.</p>
<p>He said Ozturk had no previous criminal record and five other people were detained as part of the investigation.</p>
<p>Saturday’s explosion killed five people, including Ozturk, and wounded dozens of others.</p>
<p>Among the fatalities were two American-Israelis, another Israeli and an Iranian.</p>
<p>The attack targeted Istanbul’s pedestrian Istiklal Street, which is linked with shops and cafes in an area that also has government offices and foreign missions.</p>
<p>“The identity of the terrorist who carried out this reprehensible attack has been determined,” said Ala.</p>
<p>“The findings obtained show that the terrorist is linked to the Daesh terror organization,” the minister said, using an alternative expression for IS.</p>
<p>Turkey has endured six suicide bombing attacks in less than a year.</p>
<p>The country faces a wide array of security threats including from ultra-left radicals, Kurdish rebels demanding greater autonomy who are locked in battle with security forces in the south east, and the Islamic State group.</p>
<p>Turkey is also a partner in the US-led coalition against IS and its airbases are being used to launch bombing runs against the group in neighbouring Syria.</p>
<p>Two of the attacks this year hit the Turkish capital, Ankara.</p>
<p>An off-shoot of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Union claimed responsibility for the February 17 car bombing that killed 29 people and the March 13 suicide bombing that killed 37 people.</p>
<p>On January 12, an attack that Turkish authorities blamed on IS claimed the lives of a dozen German tourists visiting Istanbul’s historic sites. That attack delivered a bitter blow to the country’s vital tourism sector.</p>
<p>Ala said Turkey was determined to press ahead with its fight against terror groups but admitted it was difficult to prevent suicide attacks.</p>
<p>“We are working so that they do not happen,” the minister said.</p>
<p>The attack came as Turkey heightened security across the country in the run-up to the Kurdish spring festival of Newroz on March 21. This is used traditionally by Kurds in Turkey to assert their ethnic identity and demand greater rights.</p>
<p>Ala said 120,000 police and 80,000 military police were on duty during the Newroz period and more than 1,000 police checkpoints had been set up.</p>
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