Announcement follows dawn raids on suspected Isis cells in Istanbul, where 16 people were detained, and Izmir

Three foreign nationals – a Russian, an Uzbek and a Kyrgyz – carried out the shooting and triple suicide bombing at Atatürk airport in Istanbul, Turkish officials have said, but questions remain over security shortcomings that allowed the attackers to breach several control points and kill 43 people.

The announcement, made to western and Turkish news agencies, came as Turkish police carried out raids against suspected Islamic State cells in Istanbul and the Aegean coastal city of Izmir, arresting a further three foreign nationals.



Turkish authorities, including the president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, believe Isis was responsible for the attack on Europe’s third-busiest airport on Tuesday evening, the deadliest in a string of killings and explosions that have shaken the country this year. There has been no claim of responsibility.

Turkish police have identified one of the attackers as Osman Vadinov, a Chechen from Dagestan who reportedly entered Turkey on his Russian passport about a month ago.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest One of the suicide bomber at Istanbul Ataturk International Airport on the security cameras. Photograph: Depo Photos/REX/Shutterstock

Police said he had entered Turkey from Raqqa, the Isis stronghold in Syria, at least once before in 2015 and is suspected to have had links to jihadi cells inside Turkey.

The pro-government Yeni Safak newspaper claimed that the man suspected of being the organiser of the attack was an Isis commander of Chechen origin called Akhmed Chatayev, described by the US Treasury Department as “the commander of the Yarmouk Battalion, a Chechen faction of [Isis].”

Chatayev is said to be responsible for the recruiting and training of Russian-speaking Isis militants and was added to the US government’s list of specially designated global terrorists in 2015. He is wanted by the Russian government.

The Turkish authorities have not confirmed that Chatayev is part of the ongoing investigation into the triple suicide bombing.

During dawn raids on Thursday in 16 different locations in Istanbul, security forces detained 16 people, including three foreigners, Turkish media reported. Late on Wednesday, police carried out a sweep of the flat the three attackers had rented out in the central Aksaray district of Istanbul, securing “digital data” and “documents linked to the criminal organisation”.

Police sources quoted in the Turkish media said the attackers had taken a taxi at 8.45pm local time from Aksaray to Atatürk airport. The driver described the attackers as calm and not at all stressed.

The assault on Atatürk airport, which reopened on Thursday, has also raised serious questions about security shortcomings in Turkey and the activity of Isis cells.

Private security personnel guarding the entrance and exit doors of the international departure terminal at the time of the attack said the assailants caught police officers inside the building off guard.



“The attackers had chosen the hour just after iftar [the evening meal at the end of each day’s Ramadan fast], so they were all caught unawares,” one security guard who wished to remain anonymous said.

“Many of the policemen were hiding when the shooter made his way across the departure hall towards the VIP lounge.”

His colleague added. “What kind of safety is this? I don’t feel safe here. In Brussels they closed down the airport for several days after the attack. Here they reopened immediately, as if nothing has happened. It’s all about profit for them. Nobody cares about the security.”

While it was one of the deadliest attacks so far, the Atatürk airport attack was by far not the only one – in a little over a year, 17 similar attacks all over the country have claimed almost 300 lives, and the government is under increasing pressure.

Speaking after the attacks, the Turkish prime minister, Binali Yildirim, said there had been no security flaws at the airport on Tuesday, a comment which drew the ire of opposition politicians and commentators.



Some critics have said the coordination between the various police departments and the National Intelligence Agency (MIT) was still insufficient, pointing to the fact that MIT had warned about a possible suicide bomb attack only weeks before the assault.

Nihat Ali Özcan, a counterterrorism expert, said that while there were things to be improved, no country could hope for absolute security.

“No country is entirely safe from such terrorist attacks,” he said. “Turkey is most certainly at a geographical disadvantage and Isis has managed to establish a network here and rally recruits to its cause. We are facing a massive security challenge.”

Turkey has long been accused of turning a blind eye to the Isis threat at its borders and inside the country, and Ankara has rejected military action against the group in Syria or Iraq. Even after Turkey joined the US-led military coalition and their fight against Isis in October 2014, it remained a rather hesitant member of the alliance.

However, after a string of deadly suicide attacks on Turkish soil, Turkey has intensified the crackdown on Isis cells at home, raiding safe houses and detaining hundreds, while carrying out cross-border artillery attacks on Isis targets in Syria.

Turkey has also tightened its borders with Syria and Iraq, substantially cutting down the numbers of foreign fighters and potential Isis recruits travelling through the country. Analysts say these policy changes prompted Isis to seek revenge on Ankara.

“All these factors brought about an important shift in Isis’s attitude towards Turkey,” Özcan said. “But after the government opened the Incirlik airbase to the anti-Isis alliance last year, the group openly declared war on Turkey. There will likely be more attacks like the one in Istanbul on Tuesday.”

Among the dead identified so far are 23 Turks. Six Saudis, two Iraqis, an Iranian, a Chinese national, a Jordanian, a Tunisian, an Uzbek and a Ukrainian were also killed in the attack, Turkish officials said.

Five of the Turkish dead were policemen, and others were tourism guides waiting for clients in the arrivals area, two who worked in ground services, and at least one taxi driver.



