BEIRUT:
Relatives and friends of the Lebanese victims of a New Year’s Eve
attack in Istanbul were at ease Tuesday after Turkish authorities
announced they had arrested the assailant. “You [are a] dog, a
criminal, Satan. I hate you, I hate you,” Melissa Papalordu, a close
friend of Elias Wardini, who was with him the night of the attack, said
in a post on Instagram.

Her comments were posted under the assailant’s picture.

The families of the victims have been demanding justice for their loved ones. Three Lebanese national were killed in the attack, including Wardini, Rita Shami and Haykal Mousallem. Another
six Lebanese were wounded in the attack, among them Papalordu, Nidal
Bsherrawi, Francois Asmar, Nasser Beshara and Jihad Abdul Khalek. The
daughter of MP Estephan Dweihi, Bushra Dweihi, remains at a Beirut
hospital. However, local media have cited improvements in her condition. Her father, MP Dweihi, has refused to speak to media outlets until his daughter gets better.

Meanwhile,
the families of the victims headed to the Foreign Ministry’s Bustros
Palace Tuesday to receive their loved ones’ belongings.

Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil expressed his condolences to the families and was briefed on the state of the wounded Lebanese.

The
families met Bassil in the presence of Secretary-General of the Higher
Relief Committee Maj. Gen. Mohammad Khair, as well as several officials.

The man believed to have killed 39 people in the attack on an
Istanbul nightclub confessed after Turkish police captured him in a
massive operation, Istanbul governor Vasip Sahin told reporters Tuesday.

Abdulgadir
Masharipov was found with his four-year-old son in an apartment in the
Esenyurt district of Istanbul after a sweeping police raid. Four other
suspects were also detained, including three women.

The attacker
had been on the run for 17 days, after slipping into the night following
the attack on the glamorous Reina nightclub on the Bosphorus.

Daesh
(ISIS) took responsibility for the bloodbath, making it the first time
it has ever openly claimed a major attack in Turkey.

Of the 39
killed in the attack on the glamorous nightclub, 27 were foreigners,
including citizens of Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Iraq and Morocco
who had been hoping to celebrate a special New Year.