Reina attacker still in Istanbul: Report

An alleged Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militant who carried out an attack on a famous nightclub at the heart of Istanbul is still in the city, according to reports. 

A major manhunt is underway for the militant who attacked Reina in Ortaköy, killing 39 while wounding 65 others.

According to the security forces, the attacker is hiding in a house in Istanbul, daily Yeni Şafak reported on Jan. 5. The daily said police would search each and every house thought to have connections to the attacker.

While police search for the attacker who managed to escape the nightclub, there is some confusion among reports and eyewitness accounts that there were at least two attackers in the massacre.

Anti-terror police have been detaining suspects since the attack and conducting a meticulous search in places that were allegedly frequented by the militant. Documents belonging to the jihadist organization were seized in several of the houses that were searched in an effort to locate the attacker.

A computer confiscated from one of the aforementioned houses is being examined by police, who said they found information related to the militant in the computer, according to the daily. 

It has previously emerged that the attacker had connections to three families in the Central Anatolian province of Konya. The families could not be found in their houses after the attack, but police raided houses belonging to them in the western province of İzmir. Fake passports and objects used in warzones, including cartridge belts, were found in searches carried out in three houses. The people living in the houses in the Buca and Bornova districts of the province were detained, while police are investigating their connections to the Reina...