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Turkey Arrests 13 Over Istanbul Airport Attack: State Media

The reports named him as Osman Vadinov and said he had come from Raqqa, the heart of DAESH-controlled territory in Syria.

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One of the suicide bombers is thought to have been a Russian citizen from the north caucuses region, the two others from Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.

The Islamic State has struck in Turkey before, but has rarely taken credit for those bombings.

In October, Russian President Vladimir Putin said between 5,000 to 7,000 fighters from Russia and the former Soviet republics are in Syria. THIS ADDS THAT THE MAN WEARING WHITE IN THE BACKGROUND UNRELATED TO THE ATTACK In this framegrab from CCTV video, made available by the Turkish Haberturk newspaper on Thursday, June 30, 2016, 3 people in foreground.

The attacks killed 44 people and injured 240 people.

The Turkish victims include an air hostess, a taxi driver and a local teacher.

The investigation came as funerals were held across the country for the dead. No other additional details were provided beyond the attackers’ nationalities.

“If the Islamic State is indeed behind this attack, this would be a declaration of war”, said Mr Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish Research Programme at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

Turkish media praised police officer Yasin Duma as a hero.

Turkey’s interior minister said the explosives were a mix of RDX, TNT and PETN that were “manufactured”.

Chemist and explosives expert at University of Rhode Island, Jimmie Oxley, described as being military-grade, raising the question of how the attackers obtained the bombs.

While any direct link between the attack and Turkey’s reconciliation efforts is uncertain, there is no doubt that it has a destabilizing effect on a country where a renewed conflict with Kurdish separatists and a spate of attacks by the IS group have kept tourists and investments away.

The Izmir raids unfolded simultaneously in the neighbourhoods of Konak, Bucak, Karabaglar and Bornova, according to Anadolu Agency.

“The terrorists failed to pass through the regular security system, scanners and police control”, he told reporters late Wednesday.

The Treasury report identified Chatayev as a member of “a group of militants that was planning attacks against US and Turkish facilities” and the United Nations report said Chatayev “directly commands 130 militants” and was the “organizer and mastermind of planned” terror acts against Russian interests overseas.

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Turkey’s state news agency Anadolu reported that two of the three terrorists responsible for the attack are Rakim Bulgarov and Vadim Osmanov, who apparently followed orders from Chatayev.

Report: Turkish raids target Islamic state group suspects