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A terror attack targeted Istanbul’s main Ataturk Airport late Tuesday, At least 28 people were killed and 60 more were injured in the attack on the Ataturk airport in Istanbul by three suicide bombers, the governor of Istanbul, Vasip Sahin, told Turkish media outlets.
The airport is the 11th busiest airport in the world and has long be thought to be a possible terrorist attack.
Just yesterday the United States State Department called for people traveling to Turkey to be on alert. Europe was already on high alert due to the attacks in Paris and Brussels. They have updated their warning for Turkey, originally published in March and updated on Monday, urges US citizens to “exercise heightened vigilance and caution when visiting public access areas, especially those heavily frequented by tourists.”
The blast occurred at the entrance of international flights terminal. Officials said that the incident is a suicide attack. Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ said that one of the terrorists opened fire on people with automatic rifle and then blew himself up.
According to a Turkish official who spoke to Daily Sabah on the condition of anonymity, security forces fired shots at suspects at the international terminal’s entry in an effort to neutralize them. Two suspects blew themselves up.
Eyewitnesses said that they saw some 30 ambulances enter the airport. The wounded, among them police officers, were being transferred to Bakırköy State Hospital.
One witness told members of the international press that gunfire was heard from the car park at the airport.
Taxis were ferrying wounded people from the airport, the witness said.
Turkey has suffered a spate of bombings this year, including two suicide attacks in tourist areas of Istanbul blamed on the so-called Islamic State militant group, and two car bombings in the capital, Ankara, which were claimed by a Kurdish militant group.
In the most recent attack, a car bomb ripped through a police bus in central Istanbul during the morning rush hour, killing 11 people and wounding 36 near the main tourist district, a major university and the mayor’s office.
Turkey, which is part of the US-led coalition against IS, is also fighting Kurdish militants in its largely Kurdish southeast.
Turkey has suffered a spate of bombings this year, including two suicide attacks in tourist areas of Istanbul blamed on Islamic State, and two car bombings in the capital, Ankara, which were claimed by a Kurdish militant group.
In the most recent attack, a car bomb ripped through a police bus in central Istanbul during the morning rush hour, killing 11 people and wounding 36 near the main tourist district, a major university and the mayor’s office.
Turkey, which is part of the US-led coalition against Islamic State, is also fighting Kurdish militants in its largely Kurdish southeast.
