Turkey on Thursday detained 13 suspected Islamic State jihadists over the deadly Istanbul airport attack, as chilling details emerged of how suicide bombers launched their assault.
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Turkey is facing a backlash of its hard stance against the militant group both within its territory as well as in Syria in the form of IS.
Family members, colleagues and friends of the victims of Tuesday blasts gather for a memorial ceremony at the Ataturk Airport in Istanbul, Thursday, June 30, 2016.
Nilsu Ozmeric wept over the coffin of her fiance, Jusuf Haznedaroglu, a 32-year-old airport worker who was fatally wounded while waiting for a bus to go home.
“The wedding was next week”, sobbed his mother, Cervinye Haznedaroglu, as visitors offered condolences.
Turkish authorities have said that the attackers were presumably a Russian, an Uzbek and a Kyrgyz national.
The ambassador made the remarks during an event honoring the victims of the June 28 terrorist attack on Istanbul’s Ataturk International Airport. Turkey was initially accused of not doing enough to stop the influx of fighters, but since IS began launching attacks on Turkish soil previous year, Ankara says it has stepped up security and worked to lock down its border.
The four were attempting to return to Turkey from a conflict zone in Syria under Islamic State control, it said. The Chechen extremist Chatayev is identified as the mastermind behind the triple suicide bombing at Turkey’s Istanbul airport that killed at least 44 people, according to USA congressman Michael McCaul, while noting Chatayev’s whereabouts is unclear.
Russia’s Interior Ministry said it was trying to obtain more information on Vadinov. A further 239 people were wounded. “By that time he had stopped shooting”, he told Reuters. I saw three people inside.
Authorities are under pressure to convince visitors that Turkey is still safe, as the vital tourism industry has taken a heavy hit from a string of deadly attacks in the past year. “Now a widow and three orphans have been left behind. Who will look after them?”
“He’s travelled to Syria on many occasions and became one of the top lieutenants for the minister of war for IS operations”, Mr McCaul told CNN. He was wounded in an exchange of gunfire with one of the attackers and reportedly saved many lives by shouting “Bomb!”
The third detonated his explosives at the entrance.
The Dogan news agency broadcast video of the Istanbul police raids showing a special forces team carrying what appeared to be a steel shield to protect themselves as they entered a building.
Another nine suspects were detained in the western port city of Izmir, but the official did not confirm whether the arrests were linked to the attack.
The man suspected of being the organiser of the attack was a Daesh commander of Chechen origin called Akhmed Chatayev, according to the pro-government newspaper, Yeni Safak.
A report says the suspects were given “health checks” before being sent to Istanbul police headquarters.
One of the two militants was wanted by Turkey on suspicion that he would carry out suicide attacks in the capital Ankara or in the southern city of Adana, Anadolu said.
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Putin and Erdogan expressed a determination to restore relations between Moscow and Ankara and push ahead with a shared fight against terrorism during this morning’s telephone conversation, the Turkish president’s office said.
