The three men who carried out Tuesday's deadly attack on Istanbul's Ataturk airport were all from parts of the former USSR, Turkish sources say.
The Attackers of the Artaturk Airport Blast
Turkey believes so-called Islamic State (IS) was behind the suicide gun and bomb attack that left 44 people dead and some 240 injured.
Police detained at least 13 suspects in Istanbul and more in Izmir on Thursday.
Family, friends and colleagues of victims gathered at the airport on Thursday for a memorial service as funerals continued.
One image on Turkish media purported to show the three men together at the airport moments before the attack, wearing dark jackets and carrying holdalls. Two are wearing caps, one is smiling.
An unnamed Turkish official confirmed for Reuters news agency the dead attackers' countries of origin after Turkish media reports.
Some agencies named one of the men as Osman Vadinov, said to have crossed into Turkey from the IS stronghold of Raqqa in Syria in 2015.
Reports that he was a Chechen have been denied by an unnamed police source in the North Caucasus, Russia's Interfax news agency reports.
The organiser of the attack has been named by Turkish media as Akhmed Chatayev, a Chechen believed to have acted as an IS recruiter, who is on a US counter-terror sactions list. His fate was not immediately clear.
IS has long recruited members from mainly Muslim parts of the former USSR, with Russian President Vladimir Putin putting the overall number at between 5,000 and 7,000 in October.
Many believe that some elements within Turkey's Islamist-leaning government stomached, or even fostered, jihadist groups in Syria that tallied with their beliefs, creating an environment in which IS could grow.
For the first few years of the Syrian war, Turkey's border with Syria was somewhat porous, allowing jihadists and weapons to cross in both directions - until pressure from the US and others grew and Turkey tightened controls.
Ankara has always vehemently denied the allegations, claiming there is no proof of sinister cross-border movement and that the media and Western governments are attempting to besmirch Turkey while ignoring the fact that it has taken in almost three million Syrian refugees.
But what is clear is that as Turkey has become a more active part of the US-led coalition against Islamic State, it is considerably more vulnerable.
It is now known that of the 44 people killed, 24 were Turkish, three were Saudis and two Iraqis. In addition, China, Jordan, Tunisia, Uzbekistan, Iran and Ukraine each lost one citizen, and two Palestinians were killed.
Some Images of the Victims
From top left: Ethem Uzunsoy (ground services), Ertan An (translator), Adem Kurt (ground services), Yusuf Haznedaroglu (ground services), Serkan Turk (physical education teacher), Ozgul Ide (ground services), Caglayan Col (ground services), Mustafa Biyikli (taxi driver), Abdulhekim Bugda (ground services), Erol Eskisoy (taxi driver), Goksel Kurnaz (security guard), Umut Sakaroglu (customs officer)
Funerals began on Wednesday, including that of Muhammed Eymen Demirci,who landed a job on the ground services crew in May after a year unemployed, texting a friend saying "I got the job bro!"
He died waiting for a bus.
Tunisian doctor Fathi Bayoudh had reportedly been in Turkey for some weeks trying to secure the release of his son, who had been detained for allegedly joining IS.
Marvan Melhim and his wife, Nisreen, both work in Saudi Arabia, and had arrived with their three-year-old daughter.
"We heard shooting from a distance," said Marvan. "The explosion went off. I found my wife bleeding and my daughter too." Nisreen died in hospital shortly afterwards.
A friend of Serkan Turk said the physical education teacher had rushed to the site of the first explosion to help the wounded, but was killed by a later blast
More details will be published as they unfold.
No comments:
Post a Comment