ISTANBUL: The suicide attackers who launched the deadly Istanbul airport assault were planning to take dozens of passengers hostage, Turkish media reported Friday, as CCTV of the bombers’ faces emerged.
Turkish officials have pointed the finger of blame at the Islamic State jihadist group for Tuesday night’s gun and bomb spree at Ataturk airport, which left 44 people dead including 19 foreigners.
The private NTV network reported that Istanbul police had detained 11 suspected Daesh militants over the attack, in addition to 13 rounded up on Thursday and another nine in the western port city of Izmir.
Officials say the men behind the latest in a series of deadly attacks to hit Turkey were a Russian, an Uzbek and a Kyrgyz national.
Turkish media identified the mastermind of the airport attack as Akhmet Chatayev, a Chechen, saying he had led a Daesh cell in Istanbul and found accommodation for the bombers.
Chatayev allegedly organised two deadly bombings this year in the heart of the city’s Sultanahmet tourist district and the busy Istiklal shopping street, the Hurriyet newspaper said.
The pro-government Sabah newspaper reported that the attackers scouted the scene and planned to take dozens of passengers hostage inside before carrying out a massacre.
But they began the assault early after attracting suspicion, Sabah said.
CCTV images released by police show the three alleged attackers arriving, wearing dark coats over their suicide vests - clothing that was much too heavy for a hot summer night.
More images show a plainclothes police officer confronting one of the men by an elevator and asking to see his identification. The attacker pulls out a gun and shoots him.
‘They looked like bandits’
Turkey has been rocked by a series of attacks in the past year blamed on either Daesh militants or Kurdish groups, and the nation is reeling from the latest assault.
The attack sparked global condemnation, with consuls from a dozen countries around Europe and beyond gathering at the airport on Friday to lay flowers in memory of the victims.
Hundreds of mourners also gathered in Istanbul on Thursday for the funeral of popular 28-year-old teacher Huseyin Tunc, who was at the airport to welcome a friend.
“We still can’t believe it,” one of his pupils, Batuhan Karabey, told AFP,
“He was more than a teacher to us - he was like a big brother, helping us a lot. Really, I can’t believe it’s true.”
The Hurriyet newspaper reported that the bombers had rented a flat in Istanbul’s Fatih district, and paid 24,000 Turkish lira (Dhs30,500) in advance for a year’s rent.
The police raided the apartment after the attack, according to an upstairs neighbour, who said the bombers kept the curtains closed.
She never saw the attackers, but she heard them, and complained to local neighbourhood officials about a strange smell.
“A very weird, chemical smell,” she told Hurriet.
“Police came after the bombing... I lived on top of the bomb.”
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.
“He spoke in broken Turkish. He took me home,” the plumber said.
“I changed the tap. I saw three people inside. They looked like bandits. One always stood by me. I left after changing the tap. They paid me 20 Turkish lira.”
