Istanbul club attacker may be from Uzbekistan or Kyrgyzstan: Report

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militant who staged an attack on a famous Istanbul nightclub on Jan. 1 may be from Uzbekistan or Kyrgyzstan, according to initial police reports. 

Police have released the first footage of the Reina attacker, who killed 39 people and wounded 65 others, and officials are also investigating the possibility that the attacker may be from Xinjiang in eastern China and aged around 25, according to a report in daily Habertürk.

Meanwhile, a man whose photo was widely shared on social media as the alleged perpetrator of the attack has applied to a police station with his lawyer to file a legal complaint against the websites that shared his photo. Ramazan İşan, originally from Kazakhstan, said he arrived in Istanbul to work and had nothing to do with the attack. 

Elsewhere, details on how the ISIL militant attacked the nightclub have started to surface. It was determined that the attacker got on a cab from the Zeytinburnu district of Istanbul before heading to Ortaköy, where the club is located. He got out of the cab due to heavy traffic close to the club and walked to Reina for four minutes. 

The first footage of the attack was recorded at 01:20 a.m., when the attacker is seen walking and shooting towards Reina, causing one person to fall to the ground. He is then seen shooting the guards, who were unarmed due to restrictions on them carrying weapons, according to daily Habertürk. The second footage was recorded at 01:23 a.m. inside Reina, apparently after the attack, when nobody can be seen standing. 

According to specialists who examined the footage, the ISIL militant looks professionally trained on how to use the weapon. He can be seen wearing a green shirt, a dark pair of trousers...