Paramedics help casualties outside the Ataturk airport in Istanbul, Turkey, following a gun and bomb attack, on June 28, 2016. ©Reuters
A Turkish official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the assailants’ nationalities on Thursday, without providing further details regarding the deadly incident.
On Tuesday night, the bombers opened fire outside the Ataturk airport. Later, two of the attackers got inside and blew themselves up while the third detonated his explosives at the entrance.
Turkey’s Interior Minister Efkan Ala said 43 people, including 19 foreign nationals, were killed in the fatal gun and bomb attacks and more than 230 others sustained injuries.
No group has claimed responsibility for the assault, but the Turkish government has pointed the finger of blame at the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group.
Officials had earlier said that investigators were struggling to identify the bombers from their limited remains, with an unnamed authority saying “a medical team is working around the clock to conclude the identification process.”
Turkish police officers block the main entrance of the Ataturk airport in Istanbul, Turkey, on June 28, 2016 after a gun and bomb attack hit the airport. ©AFP
The pro-government Yeni Safak newspaper said the Russian bomber was from the North Caucasus region of Dagestan, adding that the organizer of the Istanbul airport carnage was suspected to be Akhmed Chatayev, of Chechen origin.
The man is believed to be responsible for training Russian-speaking ISIS militants.
Furthermore, the Hurriyet newspaper named one of the assailants as Osman Vadinov, also of Chechen origin, noting that he had come from the ISIS-held city of Raqqah in Syria.
Earlier on Thursday, Turkish police detained 13 people, three of them foreigners, in raids across Istanbul in connection with Tuesday’s assault.
Turkey has suffered a series of attacks in the past year blamed on either ISIS or Kurdish militants. The airport carnage is the deadliest of several raids to hit Istanbul this year at the time of the summer tourist season.
The country is widely believed to be among the staunch supporters of the militant groups operating against the government in neighboring Syria. Analysts say Ankara’s policies on the Syria crisis have led to a rise in terror threats in Syria, and their spillover into Turkey.
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