Turks scrutinize airport blasts

2 assailants hit inside; 1 struck fleers

Family members of victims of the suicide attack on the Istanbul airport wait Wednesday outside the Forensic Medical Center in Istanbul. “We cannot cope anymore,” one victim’s relative said.
Family members of victims of the suicide attack on the Istanbul airport wait Wednesday outside the Forensic Medical Center in Istanbul. “We cannot cope anymore,” one victim’s relative said.

ISTANBUL -- Turkish authorities searched the video clips and witness accounts Wednesday seeking to reconstruct events leading up to the three suicide bombers' attack on the country's largest airport, which killed at least 42 people.

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The New York Times

Passengers line up at a checkpoint Wednesday near a shattered glass wall at the international terminal at Ataturk Airport in Istanbul. Limited flights resumed hours after Tuesday’s suicide attack.

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AP

A girl joins family members Wednesday during funeral prayers for Gulsen Bahadir, 28, a Turkish Airlines flight attendant killed in the terrorist attack at the airport in Istanbul.

The government blamed the attack on Islamic State extremists, but there was no immediate confirmation from the group.

Scenes of chaos and panic unfolded Tuesday night as gunfire and explosions sent crowds fleeing in all directions.

Airport surveillance video posted on social media appeared to show one explosion, a ball of fire that sent passengers racing for safety. Another appeared to show an attacker, felled by a gunshot from a security officer, blowing himself up seconds later. A growing stream of travelers, some rolling suitcases behind them, fled along a corridor, looking over their shoulders.

"Four people fell in front of me. They were torn into pieces," said airport worker Hacer Peksen.

The victims included at least 13 foreigners. Several people remained unidentified Wednesday. The Istanbul governor's office said more than 230 people were wounded.

The death toll excluded the three bombers. It was not clear whether any attackers were still on the loose Wednesday.

The bombers arrived by taxi, officials said.

"When the terrorists couldn't pass the regular security system, when they couldn't pass the scanners, police and security controls, they returned and took their weapons out of their suitcases and opened fire at random at the security check," said Prime Minister Binali Yildirim.

The three attackers had arrived together at the airport's lower level. One went inside, opened fire and then detonated his explosives, according to an Interior Ministry official.

During the chaos, the second attacker went upstairs to the departures area and blew himself up.

The third man waited outside and detonated his explosives as people flooded out of the airport, officials said.

A Turkish security official said the three attackers were not Turkish citizens. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the investigation.

As dawn broke over the damaged terminal, workers began removing debris. The airport reopened Wednesday morning. An information board inside showed that about one-third of scheduled flights had been canceled and a host of others delayed.

Yildirim said it appeared that the Islamic State group, which has threatened Turkey repeatedly, was responsible for the attack.

"Even though the indications suggest Daesh, our investigations are continuing," Yildirim said, using an Arabic acronym for the group.

The Islamic State, however, rarely claims responsibility for attacks in Turkey. One possible reason is a reluctance to be seen as a killer of fellow Muslims, said Anthony Skinner, director of the analyst group Verisk Maplecroft. Another is its desire to exploit the violent rift between Turkey and Kurdish rebels, he said.

"It very clearly meets Islamic State's strategic objectives to leave this ambiguity," Skinner said.

CIA Director John Brennan said Wednesday that the attack has the earmarks of strikes by Islamic State militants and that the group is likely trying to hit the U.S. in the Middle East and on U.S. soil.

Tuesday's attack "bears the hallmarks of ISIL's depravity," he said, using an acronym for the Islamic State.

"If anybody here believes the U.S. homeland is hermetically sealed and that ISIL would not consider that, I would guard against it," Brennan said.

Earlier this month, Brennan told Congress that the U.S. battle against the Islamic State has not yet curbed the group's global reach and that militants are expected to plot more attacks on the West and incite violence carried out by lone wolves. He said the group has a large cadre of Western fighters who could act as operatives for attacks in the West.

Turkey is a NATO member and a key partner in the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State. The country has suffered several attacks that have scared away visitors and hurt its economy, which relies heavily on tourism.

Turkey faces an array of security threats, including from leftist radicals, Kurdish rebels demanding greater autonomy in the restive southeast and Islamic State militants.

It also shares long, porous borders with Syria and Iraq, where the Islamic State controls large pockets of territory. Turkey has blamed the militant group for several bombings over the past year, including in the capital, Ankara, as well as attacks on tourists in Istanbul.

"The reality is that Turkey is situated in a very vulnerable situation, geographically speaking," Skinner said.

The government has stepped up controls at airports and land borders, and has deported thousands of foreign fighters, but it has struggled to tackle the extremist threat while also conducting security operations against Kurdish rebels.

'People are wailing'

Outside Istanbul's Bakirkoy Hospital on Wednesday, friends and relatives of the victims waited anxiously for news.

Yildirim visited some attack victims at the hospital. By late afternoon, 128 were still hospitalized, 41 of them in intensive care.

"You can hear that people are wailing here," said Serdar Tatlisu, a relative of a victim. "We cannot cope anymore, we can't just stay still. We need some kind of solution for whatever problem there is."

A young woman, wearing a brown and pink head scarf, rocked back and forth as an older woman embraced her, sobbing. The young woman's husband was among the injured, and doctors had told her to prepare for the worst.

"My God, why did you take him from me?" she said, her voice breaking.

Those who survived spoke of panic and confusion, and of gunfire aimed directly at them.

A man said he was going through a metal detector Tuesday night when he heard shooting. He said he came under fire as the assailants advanced. He saw one person fall to the ground, and he dived under an X-ray machine.

Adnan Ersoy, a 56-year-old cabdriver, said three of his friends had been killed and that eight had been wounded.

"They were just taxi drivers," he said. "Good people, people who were trying to survive and earn their money."

Information for this article was contributed by Zeynep Bilginsoy, Suzan Fraser, Dominique Soguel, Lori Hinnant, Bram Janssen, Will Lester, Desmond Butler, Scott Mayerowitz and Deb Riechmann of The Associated Press; and by Tim Arango, Sabrina Tavernise, Ceylan Yeginsu, Neil MacFarquhar, Eric Schmitt and Safak Timur of The New York Times.

A Section on 06/30/2016

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