Arrested Istanbul nightclub attacker confesses to crime: Governor

Abdulkadir Masharipov, the killer of 39 people in an attack on an Istanbul nightclub in the early hours of Jan. 1, has confessed to his crime after being caught in Istanbul's Esenyurt district late on Jan. 16, the Istanbul Governor has stated.   

The attacker, codenamed Abu Mohammed Horasani Abdulkavi, was born in Uzbekistan in 1983, Governor Vasip Şahin told a press conference, adding that he was trained as a militant in Afghanistan.

Masharipov likely entered Turkey illegally from an eastern province in January 2016, Şahin said.

He also stated that "it is clear that [Masharipov] staged the attack on behalf of DAESH,"using the Arabic acronym for the jihadist group.

Masharipov had confessed the attack and his fingerprints matched those found at the scene, the governor said.

A total of $197.000 in cash, two guns and two drones were also seized during the operation, Şahin added.

Along with Masharipov, "one Iraqi-origin man and three women of Egyptian and African origin" were also detained, he said.

The joint operation was conducted with the participation of 2,000 police officers with the help of police in the provinces of Konya, Hatay and İzmir, Şahin said, adding that around 7,200 hours of surveillance camera footage have been examined in the investigation. 

Masharipov first rented a house in the Başakşehir district of Istanbul before moving to other residences up until the day of the attack, Şahin stated.   

Over the course of the investigation, police conducted raids at 152 addresses and 50 suspects were detained, he added.

Some 2,200 tipoffs were also delivered to police, he said.

"The police investigated five different addresses on Monday and in the afternoon they...