Suicide attackers armed with guns and bombs killed 41 people and wounded scores at Istanbul’s busy Ataturk Airport. The foreign nationals include: five from Saudi Arabia; two Iraqis; and one each from Tunisia, Uzbekistan, China, Iran, Ukraine and Jordan. Blasts set off by suicide bombers hit the terminal, killing dozens of people and wounding many others, Turkish officials said.
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RT: Why could Turkey become a target for Islamic State?
Forty-one people remain in intensive care from the attack which occurred on Tuesday night (local time).
The security level at the Vancouver International Airport has been increased in light of the deadly attacks at Istanbul’s busy Ataturk Airport on Tuesday.
Tuesday’s attack came just days after Ankara announced it would normalize diplomatic ties with Israel, after a 2010 incident in which Turkish activists trying to break Israel’s aid blockade on the Gaza Strip were killed by Israeli security forces. But when I say we’re fine, I only mean it as a physical statement.
“For a very long time the relationship between the Islamic state and Turkey looked like a Cold War, with both sides avoiding fighting each other”, said Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish Research Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
Witness Ercan Ceyhan told CNN-Turk he saw about 30 ambulances enter the airport.
Several people were wounded in the explosions. The government also considered ISIS to be responsible, although there was no claim of responsibility from the group or evidence presented. But by Wednesday morning, cleanup crews were working in the terminal and flights had resumed.
“My loved ones narrowly escaped it”, she added, referring to her close friend who arrived at the airport an hour before the attack.
The death toll from a suicide attack on Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport has risen to 41 as Turkish officials blamed Islamic State militants. The attack – the fifth in Istanbul this year – also was another potential blow to Turkey’s vital dollar tourism industry.
It nearly mirrored the March 22 attack claimed by IS on the worldwide airport in Brussels that left 32 people dead. “Preliminary findings suggest all three attackers first opened fire then detonated themselves”.
“We expect that a resolute stance against terrorist organizations should be adopted by the world and especially Western countries with their parliament, media and non-governmental organizations”, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a statement.
Earlier this month, the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK) killed seven officers and four civilians in Istanbul; in March, the Islamic State was blamed for a suicide attack in Istanbul that killed four people; earlier that month, a vehicle bomb claimed by TAK killed 34 people in Ankara, the Turkish capital; in February, a TAK attack killed 29 people on military buses; and in January, 11 Germans were killed in Istanbul by a Syrian bomber. Turkey forms part of the U.S.-led coalition against Daesh, which is suspected of perpetrating the attack.
Other factions, including Kurdish rebels, have also waged attacks in Turkey in recent months.
“This (attack) has shown once again that terrorism is a global threat”, he said.
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He added: “It is clear that this attack is not aimed at achieving any result but only to create propaganda material against our country using simply the blood and pain of innocent people”.
