Huseyin Tombul, who witnessed that attack, said the explosion occurred while he was waiting at the airport’s arrivals Gate A.
Advertisement
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday condemned the attack on Istanbul’s Ataturk worldwide airport, which left 36 people dead and over a 100 injured, and termed it as a “cowardly attack on innocents”.
Tuesday afternoon, the FAA issued ground stop orders on all US flights to and from Atatürk, various news media reported – a routine action taken in locations that pose a specific threat to American travelers’ safety.
Turkey has faced a string of terrorist attacks over the past year, including several in Istanbul, as it confronts threats from both the Islamic State and Kurdish militants fighting a war with the Turkish state in the southeast.
Brussels was a coordinated attack, with two nail bombs detonated at the airport and another bombing at the metro station. Two suicide bombers killed 32 people and injured more than 300 others.
– July 20, 2015: A Turkish national who was an ethnic Kurd blew himself up in in the southern border town of Suruc, killing 33 mostly-Kurdish activists and wounding almost 100 others in an attack authorities blamed on the Islamic State group.
Mr Roos, a South African returning to Cape Town with his wife after a holiday in southern Turkey, said: “He was just firing at anyone coming in front of him”.
More then 140 people were wounded in the attack in and around the airport’s global terminal. “And it reminds us that the United States can not retreat”.
It is also one of the fastest-growing airports in the world, seeing 9.2 percent more passengers past year than in 2014.
The attack triggered a closed session of the Turkish parliament, where opposition leaders were expected to question Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag about details of a recent U.S.travel warning for Turkey.
He condemned the attack and expressed his deepest sympathy and condolences to the families of the victims and to the government and people of Turkey. Suspected Islamic State group extremists have hit the worldwide terminal o. The attack is also claimed by TAK.
“We have an increased security presence at the airport, and we are doing a few add things to heighten awareness”, Vancouver Airport Authority (VAA) vice-president Don Ehrenholz says.
Located just outside Turkey’s biggest city, Ataturk airport served more than 60 million passengers in 2015, making it one of the busiest in the world.
It said more than 230 people were wounded.
Advertisement
At least 36 killed.
