10 suspects charged with Turkey bombing

A Turkish court Sunday charged 10 people in a suicide bombing in the heart of Istanbul's tourist district last week that killed 10 Germans, media reports said.

The 10 were charged with belonging to a terrorist organisation and remanded in custody, according to the Dogan news agency.

Six others who appeared before the court in Istanbul were to be released, Dogan said.

Authorities have said the 12 January attack was the work of a Syrian bomber from the Islamic State (IS) group.

It was the fourth bomb attack since June that Turkey has blamed on IS, according to Reuters.

Ten German tourists were killed and 17 people wounded in the bombing in the historic centre of Istanbul near the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia, the towering former Byzantine church that is now a museum.

Germans are by far the most frequent foreign visitors to Turkey, accounting for 15 percent of all arrivals. About 5.4 million Germans arrived in Turkey from January to November last year.

Turkish authorities have identified the bomber as a 28-year-old Syrian who entered Turkey on 5 January posing as a refugee. Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the man was a member of IS.

The suspects, whose nationalities were not disclosed, were also said to have links to IS.

Turkey has often been criticised by its Western allies for not doing enough to combat IS, which has seized swathes of territory in neighbouring Syria as well as in Iraq.