ISTANBUL – The three suicide bombers who attacked Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport have been identified as nationals from Russia, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, a senior Turkish official said Thursday.
Turkish authorities did not release the names of the attackers, who staged a triple suicide bombing at Turkey’s biggest airport on Tuesday, killing 43 people and wounding more than 230.
The identities exposed possible connections between Islamic State cells and Turkey’s large communities of workers and others from the Central Asia region. There has been no claim of responsibility for the attack, but Turkish officials have said they believe the Islamic State is behind the bloodshed.
Even as the country reeled from the violence, the assault on one of the world’s busiest airports – and a symbol of Turkey’s modern economy – threatened to propel the country into a wider war with the jihadists.
Turkish police staged raids in at least two cities, detaining at least 13 suspects in connection with the attacks.
Counterterrorism units raided 16 addresses in Istanbul and launched operations in the coastal city of Izmir, according to Turkish officials and the state-run Anadolu news agency.
Three of those arrested in Istanbul are foreign nationals. Another nine suspects were detained in Izmir for providing logistical support to the Islamic State, but it was unclear if they are directly tied to the attack.
But Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said in a televised speech late Wednesday that the government’s assertion that the Islamic State is responsible “continues to gain weight.”
Turkey’s Interior Minister Efkan Ala also said there was no conclusive evidence, but early reports suggested the Sunni extremists were behind the bloodshed.
“Every connection is being evaluated carefully,” the Associated Press quoted Ala as saying.
Two people injured in the attack later died, raising the death toll to 43, officials said. More than 230 people were injured.
On Wednesday, a senior Turkish official gave a timeline of the attack: First, a militant detonated explosives in the arrivals area on the ground floor of the international terminal. A second attacker exploded a bomb minutes later in the departures area upstairs. Finally, a third bomber detonated explosives in the parking area amid the chaos as people fled to escape the attacks inside.
It was unclear at what point security forces exchanged gunfire with the attackers, according to the official’s timeline. But witnesses spoke Wednesday of scenes of panic, fear and wounded fellow travelers.
“It was chaos. No one was in charge,” said Faisal Rashid, a 15-year-old who was traveling with his family from Sweden to Iraq, where they are originally from. “We just ran, all of us, outside. We didn’t know what we were doing – we just thought we could die.”
The airport handles more than 60 million passengers each year and is a hub for Turkey’s official carrier, Turkish Airlines.
“If the Islamic State is indeed behind this attack, this would be a declaration of war,” said Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish Research Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “This attack is different: the scope, impact and deaths of dozens in the heart of the country’s economic capital.
“It will have widespread ramifications,” he said.
