Thirteen suspects, including ten Turks, were charged and jailed Sunday night in Istanbul for “membership of a terrorist organization”, in connection with the triple suicide bombing that killed 45 people on Tuesday in the airport of the Turkish megapolis, reported Dogan news agency.
The suspects are also accused of “undermining the unity of the state and the people” and “intentional homicide”, the agency said, without specifying the nationality of the foreigners.
As part of the investigation, police arrested 29 people “including foreigners,” said Sunday the Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told reporters.
“All will be revealed in time, we are conducting a broad investigation into the matter,” he added.
The governorate of Istanbul for his part said Sunday in a statement that 49 people were still treated, including 17 in intensive care. The Turkish authorities had reported on Thursday a record of foreigners among 19 killed, without giving a precise count.
The attack, the fourth and the deadliest in Turkey since the beginning of the year, has still not been claimed but Turkish officials have pointed to the Islamic State group (EI).
The authorities said that suicide bombers were a Russian, an Uzbek and Kyrgyz while the Anadolu agency, she has advanced the names of Rakim Bulgarov and Vadim Osmanov, without specifying their nationality. The former Soviet republics of Central Asia are among the most important providers jihadists in Syria and Iraq.
Turkish media have identified a Chechen Akhmed Chataev named as the mastermind of the bombing of the airport. It would be the head of EI in Istanbul, the daily Hurriyet.
Moreover, a team of 80 members of the special police forces started from Sunday to patrol the airport in question, one of the busiest in Europe, and its terminals, according to media.