Around 20 Islamic State Members in Custody Over Istanbul Airport Attack: Erdogan

Central Intelligence Agency director John Brennan said the attack, which has sparked global condemnation, bore the “hallmark” of the jihadist group.

Fox News reported Akhmed Chatayev, a Chechen terrorist and suspected ISIS leader on a United Nations sanctions list, was the planner of the attack.

Ege Seckin, an analyst at IHS Country risk, said the attack was “most likely conducted by the Islamic State to undermine the Turkish economy by attacking the airport ahead of the summer months, when tourism peaks”.

They brought with them suicide vests, bombs and a deadly plan from ISIS leadership.

Unconfirmed details of the attack continued to emerge on Turkish media.

Turkish authorities have said that the attackers were presumably a Russian, an Uzbek and a Kyrgyz national.

McCaul said his information on Chatayev came from Turkish intelligence. Turkish officials have not confirmed his involvement to CNN.

The allegation reflects a growing trend of battle-hardened fighters from Russian Federation and former Soviet republics joining ISIS in recent years. Hurriyet also quoted a local plumber, identified only by his initials E S, who says one of the attackers came to his shop to ask if he could fix their tap.

Overnight, 11 people were arrested after a series of anti-terror raids.

Chatayev’s alleged connection may not be a surprise.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with government regulations, did not name the attackers.

And the attacks appear to have been well-organized.

According to Turkey’s military, Turkish artillery has killed hundreds of Daesh militants in Syria while law enforcement has identified more than 6,000 foreign fighters-thousand of which have been deported – as they attempted to travel from Western countries and use Turkey as a transit hub on their way into Syria.

The identification of one of the Istanbul attackers as Russian comes at a delicate time in Turkish-Russian relations.

“One of them blew himself up outside, while the other two took advantage of the panic during gunfire to enter, and blew themselves up inside”, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said. Neighbors said the men lived in an apartment with a reinforced steel door for several weeks.

Ataturk Airport is one of the busiest ports in the world, serving more than 60 million passengers in 2015.

“It shelled ISIS[Daesh] positions on a daily basis and it hosts coalition which is fighting ISIS”, he said, noting that the bombing would not have an effect on Turkey’s diplomatic endeavors.

Preliminary findings suggest all three attackers at Ataturk airport opened fire and then detonated explosives strapped to their bodies, similar to the mass shootings and suicide bombings at Paris’ Bataclan concert hall in November. “So in a sense, the ultimate Kamikaze warrior”, Weiss explained.

The attacks killed 44 people and injured 240 people. It has claimed responsibility for similar bomb and gun attacks in Belgium and France in the past year. At least 10 people died in those blasts. He said a prayer in front of a memorial set up for the victims, which features the pictures of airport employees who were killed in the rampage.

Other fatalities included nationals from Saudi Arabia, Iraqi, Tunisia, China, Iran, Ukraine, Jordan and Uzbekistan, a Turkish official said.