Identities of 20 victims, including 15 foreigners, confirmed in Istanbul nightclub attack

The identities of 20 victims killed in an armed attack at a nightclub in central Istanbul on Jan. 1 have been confirmed and 15 have been identified as foreign citizens, while five of them were reported to be Turkish citizens, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu has said. 

Istanbul's famous Reina nightclub was hit by an armed attack just over an hour into the new year. The gunman had reportedly entered the club by killing a policeman and a civilian at the entrance of the club and later shot his way into the club at the celebrating crowd. 

Soylu said 20 of the victims were identified, while works to identify the other 19 were ongoing. Some 69 wounded were also undergoing treatments at 10 different hospitals, of which four of them were reportedly in "critical condition."

Meanwhile, Family and Social Policies Minister Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya has stated that Saudi Arabian, Moroccan, Lebanese and Libyan nationals were among the victims of the attack.

An Israeli woman was among the dead, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said on Jan. 1. 

She was identified as Leanne Nasser, 19. Israeli media reports said she had been at the club with three friends from her home village of Tira in central Israel, one of whom was wounded in the shooting attack. 

In a statement at the weekly cabinet meeting on Jan. 1, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: "We saw over the weekend ... another deadly attack in Turkey. We send condolences to the families of those who were murdered and best wishes for recovery to the wounded."