Turkish police visited the Fatih area and showed neighbors video and photographs of three men they say are believed to have carried out the attack, residents said.
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The private NTV network reported that Istanbul police had detained 11 suspected ISIS militants in relation to the attack, in addition to 13 rounded up on Thursday and another nine in the western port city of Izmir.
Foreign heads of state have expressed their solidarity with Turkey and presented their condolences, but for the Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, it is “not enough” to show solidarity in response to terrorist attacks.
Turkey’s main opposition leader, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, angered by the ruling AK Party’s refusal to hold an inquiry into the airport attack, accused the AKP of “an ideological kinship” with Islamic State.
Turkish authorities have detained at least 24 people in raids in several Istanbul neighborhoods over possible connections to the attack.
The official gave no further details beyond confirming the attackers’ nationalities and declined to be named because details of the investigation have not yet been released.
Two Russian nationals have been identified as suspected Islamic State suicide bombers in the attack that is thought to have been masterminded by a Chechen, Turkish media said on Friday. He and two others in the auto said they were heading to Norway to go fishing and meet friends. He was designated by the U.S. and United Nations as a terrorist commander having appeared in several IS videos and in direct command of 130 Russian and other former Soviet state militants.
No group has claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s attack.
Turkish media reported that a man nicknamed “Akhmed One-Arm” was behind the attack. He and two others in the auto said they were heading to Norway to go fishing and meet friends.
Three of those arrested in Istanbul are foreign nationals.
Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, told CNN Chatayev is suspected of directing three suicide bombers in the Tuesday attack that also injured 239 people.
The four were attempting to return to Turkey from a conflict zone in Syria under Islamic State control, it said.
Turkey’s interior minister said the explosives were a mix of RDX, TNT and PETN that were “manufactured”. At least one taxi driver died. One is said to be from Russia’s restive North Caucasus region and the others from Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.
In Istanbul, Turkish authorities began to provide a more detailed picture of how the attack unfolded.
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.
Those killed in Istanbul came from all over the world, but most were Turkish, including 10 airport employees, TAV Airports CEO Sani Sener said.
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On June 25, Turkish security forces killed two suspected IS militants trying to cross the border illegally after they ignored orders to stop, local media reported.
