Authorities in Turkey yesterday detained 13 suspected militants linked to the Islamic State (IS) group over the deadly Istanbul Ataturk Airport attack.
The death toll from Tuesday’s gun and suicide bomb spree at Ataturk airport has risen to 43, Turkish Minister of the Interior Efkan Ala said, adding that 19 foreigners were among the dead and more than 200 people were injured.
Authorities have identified the bombers as a Russian, an Uzbek and a Kyrgyz national.
Turkey has been plunged into mourning over the carnage at Ataturk airport, the deadliest of several attacks to strike Turkey’s biggest city this year.
Police carried out more than a dozen raids across Istanbul earlier yesterday, arresting 13 people, including four foreigners, Ala said.
Turkey has suffered a string of deadly attacks in the past year blamed on either the IS or Kurdish rebels, and the airport attack comes just at the start of the crucial summer tourist season.
Ala said that there was an ongoing “serious and comprehensive investigation” into who was behind the attack.
“First signs point to Daesh, but it is not certain yet,” he said, using another name for IS.
CIA Director John Brennan said the attack, which has sparked international condemnation, bore the “hallmark” of the militant group.
Details are beginning to emerge of how the attackers arrived at Turkey’s busiest airport by taxi before indiscriminately firing at passengers with automatic rifles and detonating suicide bombs.
The victims include several Saudis, a Chinese, a Tunisian and a Ukrainian.
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