A teenager from Russia's Muslim region of Dagestan, suspected of a suicide bombing in Istanbul, was said today to have been an Islamic State jihadist and the widow of an Norwegian extremist.
A policeman and the female suicide bomber were killed in the attack on January 6 in Sultanahmet, the heart of Istanbul's tourist district and home to its greatest concentration of historic monuments.
Turkish authorities have so far refrained from naming the suicide bomber but reports in Turkey and Russia today identified her as Diana Ramazanova, 18, from the northern Caucasus region of Dagestan.
The Hurriyet daily said she was the widow of Abu Aluevitsj Edelbijev, a Norwegian citizen of Chechen origin. The pair were married last year in a religious ceremony, either in Istanbul or in Syria.
The report said that Ramazanova had entered Turkey on a tourist visa in May 2014 but Edelbijev may have entered the country illegally.
Last July the pair crossed the border from Turkey into Syria, joining Islamic State (IS) jihadists who have seized large parts of Syria up to the Turkish border.
He took the name of Idris while she became known as Sumeyra, it said.
Edelbijev was killed in December while fighting. Ramazanova then crossed the border illegally back into Turkey on December 26, before carrying out the suicide bombing in Istanbul on January 6.
Hurriyet said security services are still trying to ascertain whether she had brought her explosives with her from Syria or whether they had been given to her by a contact in Istanbul.
The famRamazanovaily of her late husband has confirmed that Ramazanova was the suicide bomber.
"I don't think she could take it anymore. She said that Abu was in peace and that she wanted peace too," Edelbijev's mother told Norwegian TV2.
Edelbijev's mother also told the Norwegian broadcaster NRK that she had spoken with her daughter-in-law the day before the attack.
"We had regular contacts through instant messaging online. Everything seemed normal. We had contacts no later than in the evening of January 5. She spoke about her family and sent pictures," she said.
The Edelbijev family had actually never met Ramazanova but had been due to travel to Turkey to meet her last Friday.
"There was nothing that suggested that this could happen.
