Uzbek citizen Abdulkadir Masharipov has confessed to shooting dead 39 people at a popular Istanbul nightclub at New Year, and he carried out the attack for the Islamic State jihadist group, the city's governor was cited as saying by local media on Tuesday.
Masharipov was captured in a police raid on a luxury apartment in Istanbul's western suburb of Esenyurt late on Monday, Istanbul governor Vasip Sahin told journalists, cited by Turkish daily Hurriyet.
Masharipov confessed to the attack and his fingerprints matched those found at the scene, Sahin was quoted as saying.
An Iraqi, and three women of African origin, one of whom is Egyptian, were also held during Monday's operation, Sahin said.
A total 197,000 dollars in cash, two guns and two drones were also seized in the raid, Sahin added.
Masharipov's four-year-old son, who was with him at the apartment said to belong to a Kyrgyz friend, was taken into protective custody, according to Turkish media reports.
The attacker, codenamed Abu Mohammed Horasani Abdulkavi, is a professional terrorist and was trained as a militant in Afghanistan, Sahin said. He was born in Uzbekistan in 1983, according to Sahin.
"It is clear that [Masharipov] staged the attack on behalf of Daesh," said Sahin, using the Arabic acronym for IS.
Masharipov likely entered Turkey illegally from an eastern province in January, Şahin said.
Two thousand police officers were deployed in the operation to catch Masharipov, with help from police in Turkey's southern province of Hatay and western provinces of Ismir and Konya, Sahin stated.
The Reina nightclub attack early 1 January was carried out professionally with the help of an intelligence organisation, Turkish deputy premier Numan said on Sunday, a claim he had made in the first days after the attack.
Kurtulmus did not name the organisation suspected of being involved.
IS took credit for the attack at the Reina nightclub in central Istanbul, in which many foreigners died, claiming that it was to avenge Turkish military operations in northern Syria.
The man identified as the suspect from CCTV footage from the club had been on the run since the attack.
