Chilling video shows gunman open fire outside Istanbul nightclub
Chilling footage emerged Sunday showing the moment an Islamic terrorist stormed an Istanbul nightclub packed with New Year’s revelers and fatally shot 39 people.
Video from outside the club shows the AK-47-toting gunman firing his weapon as he rushes the club, Reina.
And closed-circuit footage from inside the venue shows the killer wandering around after the bloodbath, Turkey’s latest amid its battles against ISIS and Kurdish militants.
The killer also wounded at least 70 people. He is believed to be a member of the East Turkestan branch of ISIS, Turkish security forces said.
Turkish police continued their massive manhunt into Monday morning.
While there was no immediate claim of responsibility, the attack bore the hallmarks of the ISIS-sponsored or -inspired attacks on a Paris concert venue and an Orlando, Fla., nightclub.
The attacker — who shouted “Allahu akbar!” (God is great!) as he opened fire — killed a young cop and a civilian outside the club at about 1 a.m. before going inside and spraying bullets at a crowd of roughly 600 people.
The wounded included three victims who remained in critical condition Sunday.
About two-thirds of those killed were foreign nationals, according to the Turkish government, including French, Lebanese, Saudi, Jordanian, Kuwaiti, Indian, Israeli and Canadian citizens.
Among the wounded was a Delaware man, William Jacob Raak, who was shot in the leg. He likely escaped more serious injury when a bullet pierced the cellphone in his pocket, his brother told WNBC in Philadelphia.
A Lebanese man, Charbel Wardini, said his 26-year-old brother, Elias, was among the dead.
“I lost my brother because of terrorism,” he said. “If you tell me terrorism, I will go fight against them.”
The Israeli victim was identified as 19-year-old Leanne Nasser, who was visiting Istanbul with friends.
“Shots were fired from all directions and I saw dead and wounded people falling near me,” one of her friends, Alaa Abd al-Hai, told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
“I hid in some corner and didn’t know what to do,” al-Hai added. “Everyone was screaming and crying and the shooting didn’t stop. It sounded like an eternity.”
Nasser’s father, Zaher, told Israel’ s Walla news outlet that he had urged her not to travel to Turkey, citing the recent spate of terrorist attacks.
Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu refuted initial reports that the killer wore a Santa Claus outfit, saying the attacker arrived wearing a jacket and pants, then leaving after changing his clothes.
The surveillance footage from outside the club shows the assailant dressed in black and carrying a backpack as he enters the venue and kills the cop, Burak Yildiz, 22, and civilian Ayhan Arik, 47.
The CCTV footage from inside the club, posted to Twitter by Turkish journalist Ürün Dirier, shows the gunman dressed in white, carrying a sack that appears to be a pillow case, and wearing a knit hat with a pompom on top — possibly explaining initial reports of the Christmas costume.
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said the “armed terrorist” left behind his assault weapon and took advantage of the ensuing chaos to make a clean getaway.
The Turkish Hurriyet newspaper quoted Reina’s owner, Mehmet Kocarslan, as saying he increased security because of US intelligence reports.
But US Embassy officials insisted there was no “specific” alert, adding that on Dec. 22, they issued a general “holiday-season threat warning” for Turkey and various parts of Europe, “as we do whenever there are indications that American citizens might be targeted or subjected to violence.”
The White House condemned the “horrific terrorist attack” and offered assistance to Turkey.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan offered condolences to the families of the 25 men and 14 women killed, and vowed to punish those responsible.
A Lebanese woman who gave her name as Hadeel, who was in the club with her husband and a friend at the time, said they thought some men were fighting with each other at first.
“Then we heard the sound of the gunfire and ducked under the tables. We heard the guy screaming, ‘Allahu akbar!’ . . . We heard his footsteps crushing the broken glass,” Hadeel told Reuters.
“We got out through the kitchen. There was blood everywhere, and bodies.”
Some people jumped into the waters of the Bosphorus Strait to escape the carnage, Turkey’s NTV reported.
Mehmet Dag, 22, said he saw the gunman shoot Officer Yildiz and Arik, a realty agent, before targeting guards and entering the club.
“Once he went in, we don’t know what happened,” Dag said. “There were gun sounds and, after two minutes, the sound of an explosion.”
Turkey, a partner in the US-led coalition against ISIS, is facing renewed conflict with Kurdish rebels in the southeast, in Syria and in Iraq.
Major attacks carried out by ISIS or Kurdish fighters killed more than 180 people in Istanbul and Ankara alone in 2016.
On Dec. 10, a double bomb attack outside an Istanbul soccer stadium killed 45 people and wounded about 150 others. The attack was claimed by the Turkey-based militant group the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons.
Nine days later, an off-duty Turkish cop assassinated Russian Ambassador Andrei Karlov at an art-exhibit opening in Ankara.
With Wire Services