Istanbul Bombers From Russia, Kyrgyzstan And Uzbekistan: Turkish Official

Istanbul: The three suicide bombers in the deadly attack at the Istanbul Ataturk airport attack on June 28 were from Russia, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, a Turkish government official has said. 

The officials earlier said that the forensics teams had been struggling to identify the bombers from their limited remains. The official gave no further details beyond confirming the attackers’ nationalities and declined to be named because details of the investigation have not yet been released.

The three bombers opened fire to create panic outside, before two of them got inside the terminal building and blew themselves up. The third detonated his explosives at the entrance. At least 43 people, including 19 foreigners, were killed, and further 239 others were wounded.

As per reports, Turkish police also rounded up 13 suspects over the airport attack. Police carried out simultaneous raids at 16 addresses in Istanbul on June 28, adding that three of the suspects were foreigners.

The raids against suspected Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) cells were launched in Istanbul and the Aegean coastal city of Izmir.

Turkish authorities and US officials believe ISIL, also known as ISIS, was responsible for the gun and bomb attack on Europe’s third-busiest airport, the deadliest in a series of suicide bombings in Turkey this year.

Turkey is part of a US-led military coalition against ISIL and home to around three million refugees fleeing the five-year civil war in neighbouring Syria.

ISIL has established a self-declared caliphate in parts of both Syria and Iraq, and declared war on all non-Muslims and on Muslims who do not accept its version of Islam. It has claimed responsibility for similar attacks in Belgium and France in the past year.