The three Istanbul Airport attackers are believed by Turkish officials to have come from Russia and the Central Asia region.
The attack consistied of shootings and suicide bombings at Atatürk Airport in Istanbul, Turkey. Gunmen armed with automatic weapons and explosive belts staged a simultaneous attack at the international terminal of Terminal 2. Forty-four people were killed, in addition to the three attackers and 239 people were injured.
Turkish officials said the attackers were acting on behalf of the Islamic State and had come to Turkey from IS-controlled Syria. Commentators suggested that the attacks may have been related to stepped-up pressure against the group by Turkish authorities.
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım accused the Islamic State of carrying out the attack, but IS has not claimed responsibility.
The BBC and many outlets have reported that the attackers were from the Russian North Caucasus region, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. Previously it was reported the attackers spoke a language unfamiliar to their taxi driver, possibly Chechen.
Many travelers gave accounts of what they saw during the attack to reporters after the attack ended. One man stated:
“We came right to international departures and saw the man randomly shooting. He was just firing at anyone coming in front of him. He was wearing all black. His face was not masked. I was 50 metres away from him. We ducked behind a ticket counter but I stood up and watched him. Two explosions went off shortly after one another. By that time he had stopped shooting.
He turned around and started coming towards us. He was holding his gun inside his jacket. He looked around anxiously to see if anyone was going to stop him and then went down the escalator. We heard some more gunfire and then another explosion, and then it was over.”
Other people not yet in the terminal said that multiple taxicab drivers were screaming “Don’t enter! A bomb exploded!” from their windows to incoming traffic.
Non-fatal injuries number 239.
May be its me but cynical but IS has not claimed responsibility.