Officials
believe the men — identified by another Turkish official and state
media as being from Russia, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan — entered Turkey
about a month ago from Raqqa, bringing along with them the suicide vests
and bombs used in the attack, the source said.
They
rented an apartment in the Fatih district of Istanbul, where one of the
attackers left behind his passport, the Turkish government source
revealed.
The attack was “extremely well planned with ISIS leadership involved,” the source said.
The
death toll rose Thursday to 44 when a 3-year-old Palestinian boy hurt
in the attack died, according to Palestinian officials. The boy’s mother
died Wednesday, officials said. And Turkish state news agency Anadolu
reported a Turkish man died at a hospital.
While
no one has yet claimed responsibility for the airport assault, CNN
contributor Michael Weiss, author of “ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror,”
said the nationalities revealed Thursday buttress the claim of ISIS
involvement.
“One of the toughest
battalions in ISIS is called the Uzbek battalion,” he said. “These were
the guys who were essentially on the front lines guarding Falluja, the
city they just lost in Iraq.”
“Ask
anybody inside ISIS or who’s fought ISIS. People from the former Soviet
Union tend to be the most battle-hardened and willing to die,” he said.
CNN
national security analyst Peter Bergen said the revelation of the
Istanbul attackers’ nationalities will serve to “open people’s eyes to
the fact that there’s a very substantial Russian, former Soviet Union,
presence within ISIS, both in terms of the foot soldiers and the
leaders.”
Estimates of Russian fighters involved with ISIS range from 2,000 to 7,000, he said.
Kyrgyzstan’s foreign ministry disputed reports that one of the attackers was from that country.
The
ministry said Turkish officials told its representatives that “the
identities of the suicide bombers are still being examined.”
Source: CNN