Turkish media have updated the death toll from the recent terror attacks in Istanbul, saying 45 are now confirmed dead as a result of the bombings and the shooting attack at the Ataturk global airport. At least 10 people died in those blasts. The third detonated his explosives at the entrance.
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Germany today warned its citizens to exercise particular caution if they travel to Turkey, following this week’s deadly Istanbul airport attack.
Authorities halted the takeoff of scheduled flights from the airport and passengers were transferred to hotels, a Turkish Airlines official said.
Seperately, security forces killed two suspected Islamic State militants at the border with Syria, Anadolu and other news reports said Thursday.
Tuesday’s gunfire and suicide bombing attack at Ataturk Airport killed 43 people and wounded more than 230 others.
He did not reveal the nationalities of the foreign suspects, but said it was “probable” that at least one of the Ataturk airport bombers was a foreign national.
Central Asia’s former Soviet republics have been a major source of foreign jihadists travelling to fight with IS and other extremist groups in Iraq and Syria.
Turkish officials also were not able to confirm Chatayev’s role.
“He is a more advanced terrorist than a terrorist from the PYD or the YPG”, Erdogan said.
The Istanbul Governor’s office said Thursday that 13 suspects had been arrested in connection with the attack – four of them foreigners. Kurdish rebels have carried out numerous auto bomb attacks in the past year, including an attack February 17 in Ankara that killed 39 people, and another devastating bombing in the capital in March.
In Paris, Deputy Mayor Bruno Julliard said the Eiffel Tower would be illuminated in the red and white colours of the Turkish flag to honour the victims in Istanbul and as “a reminder of the unbreakable support” of his city.
One government official had previously said the attackers were Russian, Uzbek and Kyrgyz nationals.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with government protocol.
Critics say Turkey woke up too late to the threat from Islamic State, focusing instead early in the Syrian civil war on trying to oust President Bashar al-Assad by backing even his hardline Islamist opponents, arguing there could be no peace without his departure.
Two suicide bombers opened fire before blowing themselves up at the entrance to the main global airport in Istanbul on Tuesday, killing at least 10 people and wounding many more, Turkish officials and witnesses said. The self-styled caliphate prizes ambiguity about its operations in Muslim majority Turkey and did not claim responsibility for the assault by multiple gunmen wearing suicide-bomb vests. “We sweep up the mess and return to normal”, said Adnan, a store worker in the airport who said he knew some of the security guards killed on Tuesday.
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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.
