Turkey is in mourning after the brutal triple suicide bombing and gun attack at that killed 42 people at Istanbul’s main airport and wounded another 239 individuals.
According to state officials 128 victims of the attack remained hospitalised. Among the dead were 13 internationals, including 10 Ataturk airport staff members.
Six Saudis Arabian were killed and 27 injured, while as Turkish state news agency, Anadolu, reports two Iraqis, one Tunisian, one Chinese, one Iranian, one Ukrainian, one Jordanian and one man from Uzbekistan, have also lost their life. Three of the foreigners had dual Turkish citizenship.
In an official announcement on Wednesday, President Tayyip Erdogan called the attack “a turning point in the global fight against terrorism.”
Erdogan promised the government will “not let down our people and that he will not allow what happened to divide or split our country. No terrorist organization will come between what we are.”
“By killing dozens of civilians, including women and children, the terrorists were not true Muslims,” he emphasised.
“This is not Islamic,” he proclaimed.
“Taking one person’s life means going straight to hell,” he said Wednesday from Ankara, stressing that such an act during the final days of Ramadan is proof of the attackers’ lack of faith and values.
While no terrorist organisation has yet has taken responsibility for the attack, speculation is focusing on the Islamic State.
“All information and evidence points to ISIS, but nothing is for certain,” Interior Minister Efkan Ala said told the press.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said initial findings “suggest all three attackers first opened fire then detonated themselves.”
Meanwhile, Anadolu has compared the attack’s method to the tragedy in Paris and the dual suicide airport bombings in Brussels, where terrorist also arrived to the airport by taxi.
“The terror attack certainly bears the hallmarks of ISIL’s depravity,” director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, John Brennan said.
“I think what they do is they carry out these attacks to gain the benefits from it in terms of sending a signal to our Turkish partners.”
It is believed that the Islamic State is trying to send a message to Turkey, as the country is allowing the U.S.-led coalition planes to attack ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria.
Much to the surprise of security experts around the world, Ataturk Airport resumed operation just five hours after the attack.
Passengers reportedly walked over glass and blood while workers were trying to clean the site.
“I find this totally astonishing,” said Professor Larry Kobilinsky of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
“I’ve never seen such a massive crime scene looked at for five hours. It’s just impossible. You’re going to compromise, you’re going to contaminate evidence. (…) They should not have turned this open to the public.”