PHOTO: Crowd outside Istanbul’s Atatürk Airport after Wednesday night’s bombing
At least 41 people have been killed and 239 wounded in a suicide bomb and gun attack at the main airport in Turkey’s capital Istanbul.
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım said in a press briefing at airport that evidence pointed to an assault by the Islamic State, although efforts to identify the attackers continue.
Thirteen of the dead are foreigners: five Saudis, one Tunisian, one Uzbek, two Iraqis, one Jordanian, one Ukrainian, one Iranian, and one person of East Turkestan origin.
Arriving by taxi at Atatürk Airport, two gunmen began the attack before 10 p.m., opening fire with automatic weapons at a security checkpoint. They then detonated their explosives, while third attacker blew himself up in the parking lot.
According to a prominent TV journalist, Turkish intelligence units sent a warning letter in early June to related State institutions about a potential ISIS attack .
Hande Fırat said the Atatürk Airport was included in a list of targets.
Footage compiled by The New York Times:
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a statement:
Despite paying a heavy price, Turkey has the power, determination and capacity to continue the fight against terrorism until the end.
The bombs that exploded in Istanbul today could have gone off at any airport in any city around the world. Make no mistake: For terrorist organizations, there is no difference between Istanbul and London, Ankara and Berlin, Izmir and Chicago, or Antalya and Rome.
The Islamic State has carried out a series of bombings since July 2015. They include an attack on a rally in Suruc in the southeast, killing 32 people, and two suicide bombings in Istanbul this year. ISIS may also have carried out the October 2015 bombings in Ankara that killed 102 people.
