İstanbul Governor’s Office has released a statement, saying that death toll in the three suicide attacks that took place at İstanbul’s Atatürk Airport around 10 p.m on Tuesday night increased to 41, while identities of 37 were revealed.
The statement said that 10 of the victims were foreigners and 3 of them were of dual nationality. Bodies of 19 victims were given to their relatives, the statement added.
It also said that out 109 of 239 injured people were discharged while the remaining 130 of them were still receiving treatment at hospitals.
The victims identified so far are Çağlayan Çöl, Mustafa Bıyıklı, Erol Eskisoy, Sıddık Turgan, Ferhat Akkaya, Kerime Amiri, Ertan An, Ali Zülfikar Yorulmaz, Serkan Türk, Göksel Kurnaz, Özgül İde, Fathi Bayoudh, Mahmut Mert, Sıdık Peçenek, Umut Sakaroğlu, Mukhiddinov Samat, Hüseyin Tunç, Salar Davudi Kohnehshanri, Taher Misfir H. Almalki, Ercan Sebat, Mustafa Musham Saeed, Ethem Uzunsoy, Tevfik Yusuf Haznedaroğlu, Meryem Amiri, Zehra Amiri, Mahmut Çizmecioğlu, Hüda Amiri, Nisreen Hashem Shammad, Vafika Ali Bilal, Adem Kurt, Habibullah Sefer, Murat Güllüce, Abdülkerim Bugda, Abdurrahman Abdullah Bedullah, Muhammed Eymen Demirci and Larysa Tsybaklova.
PM Binali Yıldırım spoke to the press at the scene of the attack in the early hours of June 29, saying that the attack was suspected to be organized by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) militants.
“According to the observation of our security force members, the evidence points to Daesh,” Yıldırım said, using the Arabic acronym for ISIS.
Speaking to the press earlier, Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ confirmed the incident as a “terrorist attack” and added that one of the two assailants first opened fire at the entrance of the international terminal with an assault rifle before detonating a bomb attached to his body.
49 ambulances were dispatched to the scene of the attack and the injured were sent to nearby hospitals that include the Bakırköy Dr. Sadi Konuk Training and Research Hospital, Bağcılar Training and Research Hospital, İstanbul Sağlık Bilimleri Üniversitesi Kanuni Sultan Süleyman Training and Research Hospital.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan held a meeting about the attack with PM Yıldırım and Chief of General Staff Hulusi Akar at the presidential palace in Ankara capital. Deputy PM Numan Kurtulmuş, Interior Minister Efkan Ala and National Defence Minister Fikri Işık were also present at the meeting.
The Turkish Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) announced that a broadcasting ban was issued for the attack on the same night, over a request by Yıldırım.