ISTANBUL (AP) — Suicide attackers killed dozens and wounded more than 140 at Istanbul’s busy Ataturk Airport. Turkish officials blamed Tuesday’s massacre at the international terminal on three suspected Islamic State group militants.
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said 36 were dead as well as the three suicide bombers. Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said 147 were wounded.
Another senior government official told The Associated Press the death toll could climb much higher. The senior official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with government protocol, at first said close to 50 people had already died, but later said that the figure was expected to rise to close to 50.
Hundreds of frightened passengers streamed out of the airport. Bombings in Turkey, a key partner in the U.S.-led coalition against IS and a NATO member, have increased in scale and frequency in recent months. They have scared off tourists, a key support to the Turkish economy.
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.”
“The findings of our security forces point at the Daesh organization as the perpetrators of this terror attack,” Yildirim said at the airport, using the Arabic name for IS, but “… our investigations are continuing.”
Turkey shares long, porous borders with Syria and Iraq, war-torn countries where IS controls large pockets of territory. Authorities have blamed IS for several major bombings over the past year, including on the capital Ankara, as well as attacks on tourists in Istanbul.
Turkey has stepped up controls at airports and land borders and deported thousands of foreign fighters, but has struggled to tackle the threat of IS militants while also conducting vast security operations against Kurdish rebels, who have also been blamed for recent deadly attacks.
Yildirim said air traffic at Ataturk Airport, which was suspended after the attack, had resumed to normal early Wednesday. A stoppage of flights to and from the United States and Istanbul lasted several hours but was later lifted, a U.S. official said.
Yildirim said the attackers arrived at the airport in a taxi, opened fire, then blew themselves up. Asked whether a fourth attacker might have escaped, he said authorities have no such assessment but are considering every possibility.
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.
The official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity in line with government regulations, cited interior ministry information and said that none of the attackers managed to get past security checks at the terminal’s entrance.
Turkish airports have security checks at the entrance of terminal buildings as well as before entry to departure gates.
“This (attack) has shown once again that terrorism is a global threat,” Yildirim said.
