No group has claimed responsibility for the operation, but Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday that the Islamic State extremist organization “most probably” was behind it.
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Turkish police have also detained 13 suspects, three of them foreigners, in connection with the attack, NPR’s Leila Fadel reports. The CIA and White House declined to comment on McCaul’s assertion and officials said the investigation of the bombing is still ongoing.
The three attackers were identified from their remains.
Anadolu said Osmanov’s identity was determined through a photocopy of his passport, which he submitted to a real estate agent in order to rent a house in Istanbul’s Fatih district. However, TAK did claim a bombing that killed one person at Sabiha Gokcen Airport, Istanbul’s other airport, late a year ago. “These people were innocent; they were children, women, elderly”.
As the death toll from Tuesday’s attack rose to 44 with 100 people still in hospital authorities believe they have identified the three bombers as being from Russian Federation and its two former states Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.
Court documents obtained by The AP on Friday show Chatayev had arrived by ferry from Germany – and that he and two pals said they were en route to Norway to fish. They arranged to meet at Ataturk airport before heading to the town where Anouar was being held.
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Turkish investigators reportedly have been able to trace some of the attackers’ activities. A local paper says he was freed from prison in January 2009. An anonymous source within the Turkish government claims the three men involved in the attack were from Russia, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan and entered the country from Syria last month, along with the suicide vests and bombs they used in the attack. Two suicide bombers opened fire before blowing themselves up at the entrance to the main worldwide airport in Istanbul, killing at least 10 people and wounding at least 60 people according to Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag??. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with government regulations. Turkey has suffered multiple terror attacks recently at the hands of ISIS as it shares a border with Syria and Iraq, where the terror organization is rooted, and has joined global efforts to disarm the group. It is widely believed that IS is responsible for the attacks that targeted civilians and a Kurdish rebel group, known as TAK, carried out the attacks that hit armed forces and law enforcement.
