ISTANBUL // The death toll from the attack on Istanbul rose to 44 on Thursday as Turkey revealed the three suicide bombers who carried it out were from Russia, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan and all the information so far suggested they were directed by ISIL.
Although the extremist group did not immediately claim responsibility for the attack on Ataturk airport, it has boasted of having cells in Turkey and made repeated threats to mount attacks in the country, which has served a vital crossing point into ISIL territory in neighbouring Syria and Iraq. Police rounded up 13 suspects on Thursday after raids on 16 locations in three neighbourhoods on both the European and Asian sides of Istabul.
A medical team has been working round the clock to identify the attackers but the foreign ministry of Kyrgyzstan swiftly denied that one of its nationals was involved. There was no comment from Uzbekistan and Moscow said it had no information about the supposed Russian national, although president Vladimir Putin has said that between 5,000 and 7,000 people from Russia or other nations of the former Soviet Union have joined ISIL in Syria and Iraq. Many Muslims from Russia's southern region of Chechnya have settled in Turkey since the time of the Chechen separatist wars, and Moscow has repeatedly accused Turkey of failing to cooperate in tracking down suspected terrorists.
it is also known that ISIL fighters include Chechens and natives of other provinces in the volatile north Caucasus region, most notably Tarkhan Batirashvilim, who took the norm de guerre of Omar Al Shisani or Omar the Chechen. An ethnic Chechen, he came from the from Soviet republic of Georgia and became a senior ISIL commander until he died of wounds suffered in a US air raid in Syria earlier this year.
But while the authorities were struggling to identify those responsible for the Istanbul atrocity, there was no doubt for the grieving relatives of the 44 who perished.
Abdulmumin Amiri lost four family members and only escaped death himself because he had gone out to look for a taxi while the others stayed behind to watch their luggage. "That's when the bomb went off," he said. 'I was about four or five metres away."
Ercan Sebat, 41, was a talented artist with several exhibitions to his name but he had worked in passenger services for nearly two years. On Thursday his mother wailed in agony as she buried her son, crying out, "They have torn out my lungs!"
For his father, Mahmut, the ordeal was too much and he was taken to hospital, close to collapse.
Yusuf Haznedaroglu and Nilsu Ozmeric of Turkey were looking forward to their wedding less than two weeks away. Instead, on Thursday, Ms Ozmeric stood weeping over her fiance's coffin, her engagement ring dangling from her neck. The 32-year-old, who had worked in the ground services department of Ataturk airport since last year, died in hoptial from the injuries sustained as he waited for a bus home. As visitors came to offer condolences, his mother Cervinye told them, "The wedding was not until next week — you came at the wrong time."
Ozgul Ide, 21 had worked at the airport for six months after graduating from Istanbul's Are University in tourism and hotel management.
Turkish customs officer Umut Sakaroglu, 31, tried to stop the attack and paid with his own life. He fired at one of the gunmen but only wounded him so the bomber was able to detonate his explosive-packed vest. Sondos Shraim, her husband and their three-year-old son were in Istanbul for a Ramadan holiday. Mother and son died and the father was injured.
Adem Kurt, 32, had moved to Istanbul from the northwestern province of Bursa to work at the airport as a supervisor but still visited his parents each weekend and was planning to get engaged. Instead of an engagement party, his family held a funeral service for him on Wednesday.
Uzbek national Abrorjon Ustabayev, 22, was a trader who frequently visited the country to buy goods to sell back home. He arrived t the airport on Tuesday evening with $12,000 worth of textiles only to fall victim to a terrorist. "he loved Turkey and had many dreams," said his good friend Kemal Han who ha spoken to him shortly before he died. Close friend Kemal Han said that he had spoken by phone with Ustabayev shortly before the attacks.
"He loved Turkey and had many dreams," Han told the state-run Anatolia news agency. "Terrorism destroyed both."
Murat Gulluce adored his four daughters, referring to them as his "princesses" on social media. Now, they are fatherless. Gulluce died of his injuries in hospital.
Two memorial services for the victims were held at Ataturk airport on Thursday, one of them in commemoration of three taxi drivers who were killed there. Eleven more were injured in Tuesday's attack. Dozens of the total of 230 wounded in the attack are still in hospital.
* Associated Press
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