ISTANBUL—Suicide attackers killed dozens and wounded more than 140 at Istanbul’s busy Ataturk Airport, the latest in a series of bombings to strike Turkey in recent months. Turkish officials said the massacre was most likely the work of the Islamic State (IS) group.
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said 36 people died on Tuesday, as well as the three suicide bombers, who arrived at the airport in a taxi and blew themselves up after opening fire. Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said 147 were wounded.
Yildirim said in a press statement early on Wednesday that air traffic had returned to normal and “our airport has been opened to flights and departures from 02:20 [local time] on.” There were conflicting accounts of the attack. A Turkish official said authorities are going through Closed-circuit television footage and witness statements to establish a preliminary timeline and details of the attack.
“It is a jigsaw puzzle,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with government protocol. The Haber Turk newspaper reported that one attacker blew himself up outside the terminal, then two others opened fire at the point where the X-ray machines are. One attacker was shot at while running amid fleeing passengers, then blew himself up at the exit. The third attacker went up one level to where the international departures terminal is, was shot by the police and blew himself up.
Airport surveillance video posted on social media showed the moment of one blast, a huge ball of fire, and passengers fleeing in terror. Another appeared to show an attacker, felled by a gunshot from a security officer, blowing himself up seconds later. The recent attacks on a key partner in the US-led coalition against IS and a the North Atlantic Treaty Organization member have increased in scale and frequency. They have scared away tourists and hurt the Turkish economy, which relies heavily on tourism.
As dawn broke over the destroyed terminal, workers began removing debris left by the blast. The airport partially reopened, but an information board inside showed that about one-third of scheduled flights had been canceled, with a host of others delayed.
Earlier, the hundreds of passengers, who fled the airport in fear, were left sitting on the grass outside. Several ambulances drove back and forth, and security vehicles surrounded the scene. Adam Keally, from Boston, said he heard gunfire followed by several explosions, then saw people “very badly injured.”
Hevin Zini, 12, had just arrived from Duesseldorf, Germany, with her family and was in tears. “There was blood on the ground,” she told the Associated Press. “Everything was blown up to bits…if we had arrived two minutes earlier, it could have been us.”
Yildirim, speaking to reporters at the airport, said all initial indications suggested the IS group was behind the attacks.
“The findings of our security forces point at the Daesh organization as the perpetrators of this terror attack,” Yildirim said, using the Arabic name for IS. “Even though the indications suggest Daesh, our investigations are continuing.”
Another Turkish official said two of the attackers detonated explosives at the entrance of the international arrivals terminal after police fired at them, while the third blew himself up in the parking lot.
Image credits: AP