Istanbul suicide bomber was 'teen widow of Norwegian IS jihadist'

Istanbul (AFP) - A teenager from Russia's Muslim region of Dagestan suspected to have carried out a suicide bombing in Istanbul was said Friday to have been the widow of a Norwegian jihadist who died fighting for the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria.

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 on Friday 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.

http://news.yahoo.com/istanbul-suicide-bomber-teen-widow-norwegian-jihadist-170030584.html