A lone gunman shot at random early Sunday morning at crowds celebrating New Year at a high-end night club in central Istanbul, inflicting heavy casualties in a deliberate attack that is believed to aim for multiple implications.
As hundreds of revelers were marking the arrival of the year 2017 at Reina night club in the district of Besiktas, a gunman stormed and started a shooting spree after firing at security guards at the entrance, leaving 39 dead and 69 others injured, with four in critical condition.
The militant was seen changing his ammunition clip several times in the assault and heard speaking Arabic.
Foreigners are among the casualties, with some of the perished confirmed to be from Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Lebanon, Libya and Israel. This fact is believed to further hit Turkey's flagging tourism.
The gunman was on the run after slipping out of the nightclub in chaos, leading to a manhunt by police.
Abdullah Agar, a security analyst, saw both the target and the perpetrator as being selected "very attentively."
Reina, quite close to the Bosporus Strait, is popular with celebs, artists, football stars and tourists. As to the shooter, Agar described him as a "very very cold-blooded" terrorist more adept at close attacks than those trained in the military.
"The ammunition he used is also very qualified. He definitely is not someone ordinary," Agar said, noting "He used steel core bullets which can be rarely found and used. One bullet can killed more than one person at once. It is not easily obtained."
He cited the Islamic State (IS) as a possible mastermind behind the mass shootings, which targeted civilians in past attacks.
In his view, the deadly attack was carried out to derange the balance in Turkey, spoil the country's ongoing struggle against terror organizations outside of its territory, disturb the society's fragility even further, or have Turkey pay a price for its increasing cooperation with Russia.
"The target and the timing which coincided with New Year celebrations is very important. The attack's symbolic meaning is very important," the analyst remarked.
Turkey has been hit by around 30 bombing attacks over the past one and a half years, in which more than 400 people lost their lives, prompting calls for steps to revamp the intelligence units and reduce polarization in society to better counter the scourge of terrorism.
Ankara has blamed the terror attacks on its soil mostly on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the IS that is wreaking havoc in neighboring Iraq and Syria.
"We are aware that these attacks carried out by different terrorist organizations targeting our citizens are not independent from incidents happening in our region," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a written statement hours after the nightclub shooting. "We are determined to destroy the attacks and threats against our country from its root."
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, after visiting the injured in a hospital, spoke of Turkey's continuing battle against the PKK, the IS and the group led by Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric living in the United States and leader of the so-called Gulen Movement now branded as a terror group by Ankara for Gulen's alleged role in directing a coup attempt in July 2016.
"All the countries could face such kinds of incidents from now on," the premier said, referring to "a significant victory" Turkey had achieved in Syria in collaboration with Russia in efforts to end the war there.
A nationwide ceasefire brokered by Turkey and Russia was holding in Syria despite some clashes, since it was activated at midnight Friday, a monitor group reported on Saturday.
Turkey, for its part, has launched a military offensive in northern Syria since August, with a view to clearing the IS militants from the border area and preventing the Syrian Kurds from claiming more land for an autonomous region or an independent state.
In the wake of the nightclub attack, the Turkish Armed Forces voiced determination to press ahead with the counterterrorism efforts, which Agar described as something "quite important."
"Counterterrorism is something very difficult in nature," he said. "And now it seems that Turkey will go until the end."
The latest attack on New Year make some Turks feel rather sad.
"What can I wait from 2017?" demanded Ugur, a 25-year-old working at a coffee shop owed by his uncle near the night club. "You see what happened at the very first hour of the new year."
Sacit Aslan from the entertainment business twitted: "We entered into 2017 with hope, and it didn't last two hours."
Metin Fevzioglu, president of Turkey's Bars Association, remains hopeful anyway.
"Yes, I am very angry. I am angry to those who dragged my country into chaos, to those who created an environment in which terrorists could exploit the society," he wrote in his social media account.
"But I am hopeful," he added. "I believe in Turkish nation. We are the one who creates hope out of our beliefs when there is no hope left."
