Islamic State Blamed For Istanbul Terror Attack That Killed 41
By Tyler Durden
The death toll from Tuesday’s attack on this city’s main airport has risen to 41, including 13 foreign nationals, with 239 injured, the Istanbul governor’s office said Wednesday. Despite the attack, Istanbul Atatürk Airport resumed business Wednesday morning the WSJ reported. Television footage from inside the airport showed check-in lines functioning normally. Turkish Airlines, the country’s flag carrier, said its flight operations had resumed, though the airport’s arrivals and departures board showed heavy cancellations and delays.
AbduRahman Hussein, a filmmaker from Sana’a, Yemen, was about to eat at one of the terminal’s second-floor restaurants when he heard shots and explosions. “I saw the smoke,” he said in a direct message on Facebook. “Then I started running away.” He posted pictures of shattered glass and people running. The dramatic explosion was caught on tape:
And with the damage now largely accounted for, it’s time to cast blame which Turkey was eager to do when Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said in televised remarks that the Islamic State is likely responsible for the killings. “Once again, it has been understood that terrorism is a global threat to all countries and nations and must be fought through mutual cooperation,” Yildirim said. “Our country has the necessary power and determination to overcome over these heinous attacks.”
Erdogan said in an e-mailed statement that the Istanbul airport attack was an effort to hurt Turkey’s image. “For the terrorist organizations, there’s no difference between Istanbul and London, Ankara and Berlin,” he said, urging all countries to join forces against terrorism.
What is odd is that the Islamic State, traditionally eager to immediately take responsibility for foreign terror operations, has kept silent: there was no immediate claim of responsibility. Both Islamist, leftist and Kurdish militants have carried out bomb attacks in Turkey in recent months, hammering the nation’s vital tourism. Tourist arrivals to Turkey fell almost 35 percent in May from a year earlier, the fastest drop in at least a decade and following a 28 percent decline in April.
Here is what is known: three suicide bombers opened fire and then blew themselves up in rapid succession at the airport around 9:20 p.m., Yildirim said from the Istanbul airport, where he assessed the damage and met with emergency personnel. The attacks left more than 200 people wounded, the governor’s office in Istanbul said by phone on Wednesday. Many of Turkey’s children ended school terms this month, which coincides with the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
The assaults took place near security checkpoints at the entrance to the airport’s arrivals hall. Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag told lawmakers in parliament earlier that at least one attacker had sprayed gunfire from a Kalashnikov automatic assault rifle. None of the assailants got past security controls, according to a Turkish official who asked not to be identified because he’s not authorized to talk to the press. He said two of them detonated their vests at the arrival hall, and a third in a nearby parking lot.
ISIS lack of confirmation aside, Turkey’s insistence that the Islamic State was …read more
Source: Islamic State Blamed For Istanbul Terror Attack That Killed 41
