President Tayyip Erdogan has said Islamic State militants from the former Soviet Union were behind the attack.
Advertisement
As ISIS attacked this modern airport, which is the third to be targeted in Europe, with nonwestern people killed, the extremist group proved for Istanbul residents, whose population amounts up to 15 million, that it can hit any place even the city that is considered Turkey’s center of attraction.
Earlier Sunday, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said 29 people had been arrested in connection with Tuesday’s gun and bomb attack at Ataturk International Airport that left 44 dead and more than 200 injured.
Dogan said the two suspects held late Sunday were Kyrgyz nationals, identifying them only by their initials, K.V and F.M.I, aged 25 and 35 respectively.
Police seized four thermal sharpshooter binoculars, three military camouflages, two passports, three Kyrgyz ID cards and five birth certificates during the checks.
The two arrived from Ukraine and were netted at the airport, Xinhua news agency reported.
On June 28 the terrorists opened fire at people in the Istanbul Ataturk Airport, and then blew themselves up.
No one as yet has claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Turkish government believes ISIS was behind it, and there are suspicions that the men were part of a Russian-speaking unit of jihadis, led by a one-armed Chechen warlord Akhmed Chataev.
The group, which has used the porous border with Turkey to establish itself in neighboring Syria and Iraq, has repeatedly threatened Turkey.
Turkey has been rocked by a series of attacks over the past year, blamed on both ISIS terrorists and Kurdish rebels.
The arrest of the suspects, 11 of them foreigners, brought the number of those taken into custody over the attack to 30 after 13 were sent to jail on July 3.
Of the hundreds wounded, 80 are still hospitalized, Istanbul officials said.
Advertisement
Anadolu Agency didn’t identify the suspects or specify their nationalities. Other media reports have given different versions of Osmanov’s name. This includes the preparation of derivative works of, or the incorporation of such content into other works. For the protection of AP and its licensors, content may not be copied, altered or redistributed in any form. Please see our terms of service for more information.
