“The fact that they were carrying guns added to the toll”.
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The nationalities of the victims are not yet known.
Foreigners are very likely to be among the 36 people killed, Yildirim also said. Witnesses reported that one man first sprayed the crowd with an AK-47.
Turkey’s Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag has since revealed one of the terrorists opened fire with a Kalashnikov rifle before detonating a bomb strapped to his body.
A witness said some of the wounded were being transported in taxis. Police set up a security cordon around the site, while a dozen ambulances rushed to the scene. He ruled out any security failings at Ataturk, one of Europe’s busiest air hubs.
Authorities halted the takeoff of scheduled flights from the airport and passengers were transferred to hotels, a Turkish Airlines official said.
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. “We remain steadfast in our support for Turkey, our North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally and partner, along with all of our friends and allies around the world, as we continue to confront the threat of terrorism”.
“Inside the airport it is bad, you can’t recognize it, the damage is big”, said Ali Tekin, who was at the arrivals hall waiting for a guest when the attack took place.
The assault on the airport is one of the most devastating in a series of lethal attacks in Turkey over the past year, including multiple bombings in Istanbul and Ankara over the last several months.
The attack bore eerie echoes of a similar terror strike against the Brussels airport earlier this year, though the Brussels attackers were able to get inside the terminal before they detonated their explosives.
One would assume that the PKK would not be foolish enough to perpetrate such an attack and jeopardize the YPG’s relations with the United States when the Manbij operation is close to being concluded.
The two most likely suspects are the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Kurdish insurgents.
Turkey is also a pipeline for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a recognized terror organization with militant, left-wing views.
Turkey, which is part of the US -led coalition against Islamic State, is also fighting Kurdish militants in its largely Kurdish southeast. The country has already been hit with two attacks this month.
January 12: Eleven German tourists are killed and another 16 people wounded in a suicide attack by a Syrian bomber in Istanbul’s Sultanahmet district, the ancient tourist heart of the city and home of the Blue Mosque.
Turkey has stepped up controls at airports and land borders and deported thousands of foreign fighters, but has struggled to tackle the threat of IS militants while also conducting vast security operations against Kurdish rebels, who have also been blamed for recent deadly attacks.
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Hundreds of passengers are flooding out of Istanbul’s Ataturk airport after an attack that killed at least 28 people.
